Kraininger rotates back to DHS

Kraininger rotates back to DHS    Kathleen Kraininger has been named director of the new Office of Screening Coordination in the Department of Homeland Security.
   Kraininger returns to the department after a one-year hiatus on Capitol Hill, where she was the top staff assistant on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee led by Sen. Susan Collins.
   She has been a policy advisor at the Department of Transportation and DHS, helping to get the Transportation Security Administration and DHS off the ground. During her previous stint at DHS she worked behind the scenes in the chief of staff’s office on border, maritime and transportation security policy, privacy issues, and intelligence.
   Kraininger was a leading proponent of the Screening Coordination office within DHS, and was close to former DHS Secretary Tom Ridge, who included the proposal for the office in his last budget that was essentially inherited by Michael Chertoff, the current secretary, when he took over in the spring of 2005.
   The Office of Screening Coordination consolidates management of several terrorist-related screening programs for cargo and people to coordinate and standardize separate identification, credentialing and tracking efforts of the Transportation Security Administration, Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
   DHS officials said several programs have similar processes for enrolling people, vetting them against terrorist watch lists, determining whether they should have special benefits or access, notification and appeals. These programs include Free and Secure Trade (FAST) and NEXUS for pre-certified, low-risk truckers and travelers who frequently cross the border, TSA background checks for hazmat drivers, the Transportation Worker Identification Credential, U.S.-VISIT for identifying and tracking visitors and immigrants.
   Critics have said that the office adds another layer of bureaucracy that may remove operational control from agencies familiar with how the programs fit their missions.