Cybersecurity Bill Slow To Materialize In House, Counsel Says – HSToday
The House of Representatives has no timetable for taking up cybersecurity legislation, said the senior counsel to the House Homeland Security Committee Tuesday, and the chamber would not be likely to take up a prominent Senate bill in its current form due to its costs.
On April 5, I testified before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement on a bill that would eliminate the Diversity Visa lottery (DV) program. The hearing was specifically on the SAFE for America Act, and is sponsored by Rep. Goodlatte (R-VA), who has been seeking to do away with the visa lottery for years. This was the first time Goodlatte has received a legislative hearing on this bill.
The Department of Homeland Security today announced the launch of a new terror alert system. You can learn more at the DHS website, where a page dedicated to the new National Terrorism Advisory System outlines system. New alerts will also be posted to this same page.
Yesterday marked the first time that I was involuntarily displaced from my workplace since 9/11. Thankfully, it wasn’t the imminent threat of an attack; rather, the overflowing Potomac River was to blame…or was it? Though Mother Nature may have caused the river to rise, as Ted Steinberg emphasizes, “natural” disasters are more often the work of humans than nature. Hopefully the flooding incident reminds Washingtonians why efforts to enhance our preparedness must remain a priority almost ten years after 9/11.
In an announcement yesterday, Standard & Poor’s (S&P) “lowered its outlook for America’s long-term credit rating to ‘negative’ from ‘stable.'” In other words, we went from “we’re tolerable” to “we stink,” and as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen pointed out a year ago, our growing debt is a national security concern.
Smugglers use portable ramp to jump border fence – Homeland Security Newswire
Drug smugglers along the U.S.-Mexico border are relying on increasingly more innovative ways to bypass additional security measures deployed along the southern border.
US And EU Plan Joint Cybersecurity Exercise This Year – HSToday
US Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano met with leaders of the European Union (EU) in Hungary last week to discuss ways of deepening cooperation between the US and EU on cybersecurity issues and strategy.
Republican Bill Would Expand Use Of Private Airport Screeners – HSToday
Republicans on the House Homeland Security Committee introduced a bill Friday to expand the use of private screeners at US airports that choose to hire a commercial company rather than rely on the federal workforce of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
FBI Official Spotlights Islamist Terror Threats – The IPT Blog
Mark F. Giuliano assistant director of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division, painted a troubling portrait of the jihadist threat in a Thursday afternoon address. Speaking to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Giuliano focused on two particular dangers: al-Qaida and homegrown Islamist terror.
The opening of the the original Star Trek TV series began with a statement – “space, the final frontier.” In the beginning of the 21st century, America is coming to grips with another new frontier – the final, final frontier of cyberspace. America’s government, dominant as a 20th century nation state, is still coming to grips with the dangers of this space. And its actions, so far, have been a tangled mess. We seem adrift in where we are and what we should do.
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