By congressional mandate, GAO reviewed the program to determine: (1) the operational needs that ASI was intended to address & DHS's plans for ASI; (2) the steps that DHS had taken to ensure that ASI was aligned with the department's enterprise architectur
This testimony discusses the challenges of effective emergency preparedness for, response to, and recovery from major emergencies, including catastrophic incidents.
CBP uses intelligence & a risk-based strategy to screen information on 100% of cargo before it is loaded onto vessels destined for the United States. Cargo that is identified as high risk is inspected, either at the foreign port or upon arrival into U.S.
"...the true transformation envisioned in this report will require a sustained commitment over time by the federal governmant as well as by state and local governments that have essential duties in responding to disasters..." Frances Townsend
The WWII Manhattan Project mahy serve as the model for a new approach to solve today's homeland-security problems. A major improvement in senior leadership is needed, and a reallocation of resources, but that would be only the start.
"First of all, this is a private transaction. But it - according to law, the government is required to make sure this transaction does not, in any way, jeopardize the security of the country." President George W. Bush
The huge increase in responsibilities assigned to EMS managers in recent years requires additional funding, and additional time as well. The latter is hard to come by, but DHS and HHS grants will provide significant new funding resources.
Most U.S. service personnel wounded, injured, or hospitalized for other reasons in Iraq are quickly provided advanced medical treatment. The numerous lessons learned from this experience might usefully be applied to homeland-defense planning.
"This tragedy emphasized how critical it is that we ensure [that] our planning and response capabilities perform with seamless integrity and efficiency in any type of disaster situation - even one of cataclysmic nature." Secretary Chertoff
State and local governments can order evacuations of the population or segments of the population during emergencies, but health care facilities may be exempt from these orders.
The Expansion Pack is completely integrated with CoBRA 4.0, so users continue to get the complete incident-report logging, communication, annotation, and data-sharing capabilities that they have come to expect and rely on for incident management.
TSA has made some progress in developing and testing the Secure Flight program. However, it has not followed a disciplined life-cycle approach to manage systems development, or fully defined system requirements.
"We identified significant flaws in the process for registering disaster victims
that leave the federal government vulnerable to fraud and abuse of EA
payments."
First, prior to a catastrophic event, the leadership roles, responsibilities, and lines of authority for the response at all levels must be clearly defined and effectively communicated...
"The contract was established to provide the Air Force (at all levels), Department of Defense, and other federal agencies a primary source of networking equipment/product supply and related services..."
"... outline where I think we want to go in the first step of our process of reengineering DHS and FEMA, to make ourselves better partners with you in protecting this country and responding when we have natural disasters."
Michael Chertoff, DHS Secretary
"Cyber security is critical to protecting our nation's infrastructure because information systems connect so many aspects of our economy and society," said George W. Foresman, DHS Under Secretary for Preparedness.
The proposed budget request supports Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff's agenda for a department that is organized around mission, eliminates duplication, and disciplined in risk management.
The department's budget "focuses on strengthening our initiatives in protecting our borders, increasing our preparedness, expanding our intelligence gathering and sharing, and improving maritime and transportation security."
The most outrageous and unlikely attacks by terrorists might "reasonably" have been foreseen - according to some U.S. courts. The SAFETY Act provides significant protections for those companies, & government agencies, who want to help defefend our nation.
There is no all-purpose chemical/biological/radiological detection device now on the market, but there are several excellent single- or dual-purpose devices, and more are in the pipeline.
Returning illegal immigrants to their own countries will not solve the problem. What is really needed is a strong and constantly monitored high-tech physical barrier that will prevent illegal migrants from entering the United States in the first place.
A comprehensive report on how his organization is working with other departments, and state and local law-enforcement agencies, to better protect the U.S. homeland.
"Over 40 of its AreaRAE atmospheric monitoring systems were used at Ford Field and at key strategic locations in and around Detroit to monitor for possible chemical or radiation threats before, during, and after this major public event."
