|
|
Institute for Crisis, Disaster, and Risk Management Crisis and Emergency Management Newsletter Website |
|
| |
April
2005
Volume 8 - Number 3 |
|
The House of
Representatives Committee on Homeland Security
– Current Status By: Rebecca
Updike In the September 30, 2004 report to the
Rules Committee, the
Select Committee (appointed by the House in January of 2003)
recommended the
establishment of a permanent standing Committee on Homeland Security
with the
House of Representatives. It would have jurisdiction over the
Department of
Homeland Security [DHS] and its core counterterrorism mission. The Department of Homeland Security is the
third largest department in the Government and “unless the House
creates a
permanent homeland security committee, it cannot hope to deal
effectively in
the future with the Department or homeland security issues, and the
Department
will continue to be unduly burdened, subjected to inconsistent
congressional
guidance and uneven oversight.” Though the idea of creating this committee was met with some hostility over turf jurisdictions from within the House, it did have many supporters. Supporters included: Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, current Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, past Speakers of the House Gingrich and Foley, the 9/11 commission, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Heritage Foundation, the Markle Foundation and others. On The Committee’s rules establish five
subcommittees: • Prevention of Nuclear and Biological Attack Chairman Christopher Cox was selected to
lead the new Homeland
Security Committee and Representative Curt Weldon was appointed as the
Committee’s Vice Chairman. In addition,
Judge Michael Chertoff replaced The presidential proposed budget for the
2006 fiscal year
for the Department of Homeland Security is 34.1 billion dollars. The Committee is responsible for allocating
the funds throughout the Department in order to accomplish its primary
goals. Currently each the Committee has several
initiatives and
projects underway. Recent press releases
have addressed H.R. 3266, The Faster and Smarter Funding for First
Responders
Act. This bill if passes will address the
need for stricter grant monies approval. Since
September 11th “most grants have been
made without a
rigorous assessment of risk… (and as a result) about 85% of the
terrorism
preparedness grants distributed through the FY2003 budget have not yet
been
utilized.” Another current initiative
involves the possible merger of U.S. Customs and Border Protection
[CBP] and
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE] into the Department of
Homeland
Security in order to manage its immigration enforcement and boarder
security
issues more effectively. Nuclear
protection, port and waterway security, and many other issues are on
the table
for this Committee to address in this next fiscal year in order to
protect the
nation from possible terrorist threats. Sources: http://hsc.house.gov/release.cfm?id=260 http://hsc.house.gov/release.cfm?id=278 http://hsc.house.gov/release.cfm?id=296 |