Stimulus funds go to variety of Department of Homeland Security programs
The administration’s effort to “Make America Safer” and create jobs through the Economic Stimulus package is a good start. However, it still misses the bigger opportunity of leveraging the Stimulus Package to get the private sector to focus on remediating its vulnerabilities. While there is no argument that the focus on Homeland Security initiatives may create jobs and make us safer, the real risk is that the private sector – where 85% of our critical infrastructure resides – will neither have the incentive nor the financial resources to remediate critical vulnerabilities. It is unfortunate that Congress didn’t define the baseline vulnerabilities of the critical sectors receiving stimulus money and require these companies to report that they have remediated them as part of the metrics of how the money is used. DHS and Congress know the vulnerabilities of the sectors and know what needs to be remediated. Minimally DHS should provide the security guidelines to the private sector of what needs to be addressed in exchange for the bailing them out. What could be a “win – win” seems to have been overlooked. It’s not too late.
