INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Officials from the Indiana Department of Homeland Security (IDHS) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) urge businesses to plan now for future disasters. When the next flood or other disaster strikes, getting your company back to business quickly may depend on emergency planning done today.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) today announced the award of equipment and training worth $17.6 million to 1,045 emergency response agencies in 46 states and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico under the fiscal year 2008 Commercial Equipment Direct Assistance Program (CEDAP). Since the program’s inception in 2005, DHS has provided roughly 6,800 CEDAP awards worth more than $120 million to support all hazards response capabilities in smaller jurisdictions around the country.

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — The Indiana Department of Homeland Security (IDHS) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) today opened Disaster Recovery Centers in Munster, Lake Station and Gary for residents with property damages from recent severe storms and flooding.

“Every time we were beginning to form into teams we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tried to meet any new situation by reorganizing, and a wonderful method it was for creating the illusion of progress whilst producing confusion, inefficiency and demoralization.” Petronius (AD 166)

This week the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cyber Security and Science and Technology and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence held hearings on cyber security recommendations for the next Administration. In that hearing and in the follow-on press DHS came under criticism for not doing enough to protect our nation’s cyber networks. There were even calls for DHS’s role in cyber security to be pulled away.

A reorganization of roles and responsibilities is the worst thing that could be done to improve our nation’s security posture against very real and increasingly sophisticated cyber threats. In January 2008, the current Administration developed Homeland Security Presidential Directive 23, which established the Comprehensive National Cyber Initiative (CNCI). Since then and for the first time in the Nation’s history, DHS along with its partners at the Department of Defense (DoD), FBI, and Intelligence Community have an integrated strategy and action plan to improve cyber security across federal, military and civilian networks. We have moved beyond words on paper and debate, and are now driving real improvements to our security. We cannot afford to lose that momentum and interagency unity of effort.

Within DHS, I manage the National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD), which has the mission to reduce security risks across both physical and cyber infrastructure as well as telecommunications and lead the Department’s efforts for the CNCI. Specifically, we lead federal civilian (i.e., “.gov”) and private sector network defense. Without question, it is a monumental task - one that requires interagency coordination and focus. As a nation, we cannot afford to be distracted from this mission.

In the past six months we have made great progress in this role. We have begun deployment of EINSTEIN 2 ( pdf), which will give us comprehensive, real-time intrusion detection capabilities and one point of situational awareness across all executive branch agencies. We have engaged the private sector to develop partnerships and to improve information sharing. And we have built the core of a management team with the experience and expertise to continue to lead this effort into the future. We have accomplished much in a relatively short amount of time. Securing our nation’s cyber networks is a complex and expansive problem, and it took years of growing cyberspace dependence to put us in this position - it will take a solid plan and resolve to accomplish results.

I respect the strong resumes and experience of many of the people that are publicly weighing in on these issues, and, in fact, many of them were previously in key posts that had an opportunity to impact our nation’s cyber security. I encourage them to actually spend some time with DHS discussing our plan before they finalize their conclusions and go public with their recommendations.

I certainly agree that we can still do much to continue to improve cyber security in our nation, but calls for reorganization at this point simply makes no sense. We have a plan and are on a path that will address these serious national cyber vulnerabilities. We must stay the course.

Robert D. Jamison
Under Secretary National Protection & Programs

What began as a pilot program between the department and six states two years ago has grown into the first nationwide network of intelligence analysts focused on homeland security ever created in the United States. It is called the Homeland Security State and Local Intelligence Community of Interest (HS SLIC), and it allows intelligence analysts in 45 states, the District of Columbia and seven federal agencies to share sensitive homeland security intelligence information and analysis on a daily basis. We expect it to expand to all 50 states soon, and become a key element of the National Fusion Center Network that I wrote about earlier.

When I came to the Department in late 2005, DHS did not have a dedicated intelligence information sharing channel with the intelligence analysts at the state and local fusion centers. I asked my staff to travel to the leading fusion centers around the country to understand and document their requirements for a direct partnership with the department’s integrated intelligence enterprise.

When President Bush issued guidelines for information sharing between the federal and state and local governments in December 2005, I asked my staff to develop a pilot program that would meet these requirements and enable federal, state and local intelligence professions to gather and share accurate and timely intelligence information and strategic analysis that would help protect nation. From March to September 2006, we tested this program with six states – Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, New York and Virginia. The pilot demonstrated that a full, open and equal partnership among federal, state, and local intelligence professionals could be developed and trusted by all its members.

With the support of the pilot states — their fusion center and intelligence leadership and the respective homeland security advisers — we have turned that pilot into the Homeland Security State and Local Intelligence Community of Interest (HS SLIC). Today, intelligence analysts from the homeland security, intelligence and law enforcement communities in 45 states, the District of Columbia and seven federal agencies share sensitive homeland security intelligence information and analyses on a daily basis. The HS SLIC enables them to meet, avert or respond to current, emerging and future threats to homeland security.

Every week, HS SLIC members meet virtually via a secure Internet portal to discuss emergent threats and analytic topics. Annually, DHS also hosts a national HS SLIC analytic conference and regional conferences at the classified level to discuss important analytic topics and threat trends, such as border security or threats to critical infrastructure. And most importantly, all of this collaboration is being done securely while supporting and upholding federal, state and local laws and policies to protect civil liberties and the privacy rights of our citizens.

By all accounts, the HS SLIC “virtual community” has been a tremendous success. Information is shared as never before, and shared responsibly; state and local needs for information are being met; analytic products are being jointly written; and analysts are seeing trends and patterns across information stovepipes that they were not able to see before. Together with the DHS State and Local Fusion Center program and its deployment of DHS intelligence officers and intelligence technology to the fusion centers, the HS SLIC has made significant strides toward increasing the flow of intelligence information and collaborative analysis at all levels of government. The beneficiary is the American people we all serve.

Charlie Allen
Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis and Chief Intelligence Officer

Tomorrow our nation will mark the seventh anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Since that time, there have been no successful attacks on our homeland. Common sense suggests that the terrorists did not suddenly and inexplicably lose interest in striking us again. Indeed, our government has helped disrupt a number of plots including the one uncovered two summers ago to hijack transatlantic airliners in London.

Yet in a just-released report on our progress since 9/11, the House’s Homeland Security and Foreign Affairs Committees paint an unrecognizable portrait of where we stand today. Contrary to the report’s assertions, the Department’s employees have worked tirelessly to implement over 250 distinct requirements in the ‘9/11 Recommendations Act,’ as well as hundreds of requirements in other laws.

Just over a year after enactment, the Department has made substantial progress implementing the legislative requirements, and often in the face of inconsistent or unclear congressional priorities. The report is littered with a host of egregious and embarrassing errors. To cite but a few examples:

• The report states that the Department has made “no progress” with respect to section 1701, which mandates scanning in foreign ports for U.S.-bound cargo. In fact, DHS has deployed scanning systems in multiple foreign ports and thus far has met every obligation and deadline in section 1701. The numerous businesses, foreign governments, and departmental components involved in and affected by the deployed scanning systems strongly rebut the claim of “no progress.”
• The report states that there has been “little progress” with respect to Section 1101, which requires an operational National Biosurveillance Integration Center (NBIC) by September 30, 2008. In fact, NBIC is now operational, fully satisfies the statutory requirements, and recently disseminated a report on a salmonella outbreak.
• The report states that regarding Section 711, which modernizes the Visa Waiver Program, “initial steps have been taken but significant implementation challenges remain.” In fact, virtually all of the major implementation challenges have been addressed, and DHS has not missed any statutory deadlines. Moreover, DHS already has realized substantial security gains – in particular, increased information-sharing with foreign partners – as a result of efforts undertaken in accordance with section 711. (More on the work of our Department and its people.)

In addition to the numerous errors in the report, of which the examples above are merely illustrative, many of the statements in the report actually rebut the report’s assertion that the “Administration has ignored the law.”

With respect to Section 1001, which requires the establishment and use of a prioritized list of critical infrastructure, the report acknowledges that “…DHS provided Congress with the list of prioritized critical infrastructure and, thus, fulfilled that requirement of Section 1001.” The report goes on to assert, illogically and incorrectly, that DHS does not use this list.

Finally, it is unfortunate that the report ignores Congress’s failure to implement one of the most important recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. That bipartisan body recommended that Congress “create a single, principal point of oversight and review for homeland security.” With more than 80 committees and subcommittees often imposing inconsistent obligations on DHS, Congress has made it exceedingly difficult to prioritize tasks in a manner that best reduces overall risk to the country. While the Department’s employees work to implement the 250+ requirements of the 9/11 Recommendations Act, on top of the hundreds of pre-existing legal obligations, Congress would do well to heed the one recommendation directed toward reducing the fragmented congressional oversight.

On this solemn anniversary, the Committee has squandered a genuine opportunity to commend the brave men and women of this Department, the intelligence community, first responders, and law enforcement nationwide, for their outstanding job in protecting the homeland. In sum, the 218,000 dedicated members of this Department will continue to serve this nation with honor and distinction, and we who are privileged to lead them will continue our efforts to work with Congress on behalf of our homeland and its people.

Paul A. Schneider
Deputy Secretary

The Department of Homeland Security recognizes World Tourism Day and affirms its commitment to facilitating safe travel.

The Department of Homeland Security’s “Ready Kids Campaign” joins the Sesame Workshop in launching a new guide for parents of young children on emergency preparedness called “Let’s Get Ready!”