House Democrats fault Bush on homeland security

House Democrats fault Bush on homeland security The Bush administration has failed to fulfill the mandates of the year-old 9/11 Commission Implementation Act and make the U.S. safer from terrorist attack, according to a catalog of shortcomings prepared by the Democratic majority staffs of the House Homeland Security and Foreign Affairs committees.
   “In the short time left in office, the president should redouble his efforts to make America more secure by acting expeditiously to make progress” completing the security recommendations in the law, the report said.
   The title of the report, Wasted Lessons of 9/11: How the Bush Administration Has Ignored the Law and Squandered Its Opportunities to Make our Country Safer, left little doubt about how the Bush administration would be graded.
   “The administration has just failed to act in so many ways,” House Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson said in a statement. 'Many of the act's security provisions are incremental in nature, with benchmarks kicking in this year or next. The lack of progress leads me to conclude that the president is passing the buck to his successor — just as he seems to be doing on the war in Iraq and the economy.'
   The committees said the Transportation Security Administration has been slow to develop a program to comply with a requirement for screening 50 percent of air cargo on passenger planes by February 2009 and all such air cargo by August 2010. The agency only began full pilot testing in August of its Certified Cargo Screening Program for pre-airport inspections by private parties and has provided little guidance to industry participants on best practices for screening cargo, the report said. DHS has had instructions and $500 million in funding since 2003 to address air cargo security and failing to meet the Feb. 3 deadline “would be unacceptable,” it said.
   The House Democrats also criticized the Bush administration for not making progress towards meeting the 2012 goal of 100 percent scanning of inbound ocean containers at foreign ports. DHS officials say they plan to limit the high-tech scanning and radiation detection checkpoints to high-risk trade corridors because of the logistical, political and financial difficulties with implementing a global program.
   “Limiting scanning to so-called ‘high-risk trade corridors’ puts ports outside of this designation at risk. Logically, terrorists will focus their attention on corridors that are not scrutinized,” the report argued. The lawmakers said DHS has yet to define the corridor concept and whether it applies to ports, countries or regions.
   “This lack of clarity creates confusion for our trading partners as to whether the 100 percent scanning mandate will be fulfilled. Moreover, for those ports that find themselves in a high-risk trade corridor, the significance of that designation in the eyes of shippers is unknown. Shippers may choose to avoid ports in high-risk trade corridors if they presume that the scanning will cause delays in the movement of their cargo — therein, significantly and negatively impacting the global supply chain. Requiring all United States-bound maritime cargo to undergo the same scrutiny ' will create a baseline of security thereby closing existing security gaps and improving security for everyone,” the report said.
   President Bush also has not issued any directives to strengthen and formalize the Proliferation Security Initiative for interdicting shipments of nuclear weapons or material on the high seas, according to the report.
   The DHS has not issued any proposed rules to train public transit, bus and railroad workers to deal with security threats and it has made limited progress towards completing a national strategy for railroad transportation, the committees added. The TSA says it has laid the foundation for the strategy by building upon an existing Freight Rail Modal Plan.
   To read the entire report, go to homeland.house.gov/SiteDocuments/HR1AnniversaryReport.pdf. ' Eric Kulisch