Whether talking about 100% or 50% or 10% screening, the larger the percentage the larger the cost in equipment and staff. However, I would ask 2 questions: What are we screening for and, and is the cost a sound investment in the most effective strategy?
Homeland Security Today interviews Security Debrief contributor Vance Taylor about his involvement in a new report outlining security metrics for the water infrastructure sector’s Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC), the first industry sector to release such a review.
Last year in California, police determined that someone had accessed the water in a tower. They then had to go door-to-door in the middle of the night to deliver a boil advisory to local residents. In addition, the water company had to drain a significant amount of water from the tower and clean the tank. How long people had been drinking this water before the discovery was made is anyone’s guess.
This country is faced with a renewed commitment to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Our immediate answer is for more fuel-efficient cars. Well let me remind everyone that we already have the technology to move large numbers of people and things on our train system while greatly reducing the consumption of fuel. The problem is that we need more investment in the tracks and equipment that has served the nation for 150 plus years.
Security Debrief contributor James Carafano of the Heritage Foundation does a guest interview on the respected emergency preparedness blog: “In Case of Emergency, Read Blog.” Carafano discusses a report he co-authored with David Heyman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Congress has been so preoccupied debating the STD reduction and smoking cessation components of the stimulus package that they have failed to notice the gaping whole in the legislation. It’s time to belly up at the bar and take real action. Invest in jobs, the future, the environment, healthcare, security and the economy – all at the same time. How? By fixing our nation’s decrepit infrastructure. Not $800 billion worth, all of it! It’s the best $2.2 trillion you’ll ever spend.
From the moment we first stood up DHS, the entire leadership made the case and operated under the principle that a successful homeland security model required a true partnership with the private sector. That meant going beyond simple advisory committees but developing programs in which the government and private sector could work together, as well as acknowledging that — with more than 80 percent of the nation’s critical infrastructure being owned by the private sector — those outside of government had just as much at stake and spent just as much time looking for solutions to protect that infrastructure.
Last week, the ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) released their report card on America’s infrastructure. We got a big fat D. Years of neglect, inattention, over use, lack of resources and more have left us sailing along in a leaky boat with a semi-operable engine in stormy economic seas.
Coastal shipping should be thought of in a preparedness and recovery context. Similar to the maritime evacuation of Manhattan on 9/11, an American Dunkirk, or how coastal shipping helped get the Gulf coast going again after Katrina (after the Jones Act was temporarily suspended), rebuilding America’s maritime infrastructure would bring intangible yet critically valuable security benefits.
Here’s a statement that should be obvious by now: Our economic stability and national security are conjoined twins – one can’t exist without the other. As this administration focuses on economic stimulus packages to respond to our country’s economic crisis, it is easy to lose sight of Homeland Security priorities.
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