With yesterday’s announcement of Dr. Tara O’Toole’s nomination to be DHS’ next Under Secretary for Science & Technology it should not go unnoticed that a significant portion of the Department’s leadership positions are held by women. While I’ve not gone through the other Cabinet Departments to compare how many women are in some of their most senior leadership positions, at DHS the facts speak for themselves.
SBInet spending plan not complete, GAO says — Federal Computer Week The Homeland Security Department’s latest spending plan for the Secure Border Initiative virtual fence and infrastructure program fully satisfies only three out of 12 legislative conditions for receiving additional funds, according to a new report on SBInet from the Government Accountability Office.
DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano is tentatively scheduled to testify before the United States Senate Judiciary Committee on DHS immigration enforcement policies. Heritage has its own set of questions that should be asked of Napolitano about the Administration’s views on immigration enforcement. We will be adding new questions for Secretary Napolitano daily until the May 6, 2009 hearing—along with Heritage’s suggested response. Check out today’s question.
Last week, I argued that the new Secretary of DHS, Janet Napolitano, would need to avoid common problems that have plagued so many border projects over the past year. Long ago, it was thought that all problems had their source in one of the seven deadly sins, sloth, gluttony, lust, wrath, envy, and pride. This week, we look at gluttony, defined as an insatiable appetite, gulping down without thought or need, and the compelling desire for instant gratification.
While the debate on the future of cyber security has been underway for some time, one of the world’s great deliberative bodies, the US Senate (in the form of the Senate’s Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee) brought an elevated and informed discussion in today’s hearing, “Cyber Security: Developing a National Strategy.”
The private sector owns 85 percent of the nation’s critical infrastructure, and the government simply cannot protect it all. The latest hazard, Swine Flu, has the potential to become a pandemic. There are protocols and trained personnel to support an international effort to contain a pandemic in its earliest stages, including the release of Tamiflu and Relenza from the Strategic National Stockpile. Local, state and federal authorities, however, cannot effectively prepare for and respond to a pandemic without significant help from the private sector. If your company has not already conducted a pandemic drill now is the time to do so.
Here’s the question – who pays for the protection afforded to private companies engaged in protecting America’s critical assets? The answer is: it depends.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has recently published a year long study on the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) use of risk assessment methodologies to drive resource allocations. The bottom line, according to GAO, is that TSA’s risk assessment capabilities are found wanting. But instead of being defensive about the findings, all of us should feel pretty good about how TSA has proceeded to determine risk priorities thus far.
Most of the second day program was spent with concurrent breakout sessions occurring. This allowed the attendees to hear from their counterparts around the country on everything from the Value of Statewide Governance; Public Safety Interoperable Communications (PSIC) Grants; Statewide Communications Interoperability Plans (SCIPs) and more. I’m sure to many people these topics are probably about as exciting as getting front row seats to observe a paint drying marathon, but each of the selected topics addressed core essentials to the planning, execution and funding associated with connecting first responders and more to emergencies and wide scale events.
Greetings from sunny and very warm Chicago where the first ever, DHS Office of Emergency Communications (OEC) National Conference is underway. With more than 500+ attendees assembled at the Chicago Hilton, the program has assembled first responders, emergency managers and industry members from around the US (and world) to share, discuss and learn from one another what it takes to be interoperable with one another.
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