UPDATE: House Votes To Expedite Airport Screening For Troops

By Adrianna McGinley

The House is scheduled to vote Tuesday on legislation that would expedite airport security screening for members of the Armed Forces.

H.R. 1801 would give the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) six months to implement a risk-based system for screening members of the military and their families traveling on official orders. 

The legislation, introduced by Rep. Chip Cravaack (R-Minn.), was sparked in 2007 when 200 soldiers traveling home from Iraq to Hawaii were detained during a layover at Oakland International Airport and denied entry to the passenger terminal.

“Our soldiers who are putting their lives on the line in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and elsewhere should be afforded extra respect when returning home to their loved ones and shouldn’t be viewed as potential terrorists in our airports,” Cravaack said.

The House Committee on Homeland Security unanimously agreed in September to bring the legislation to the floor for consideration.

Update on Tuesday, November 29, 2011 at 10:25PM by Staff

As expected, the Risk-Based Screening for Members of the Armed Services Act passed the House unanimously Tuesday evening. The vote tally was 404-0.

TSA Working To Quicken Air Travel Process

By Janie Amaya

Transportation Security Administrator John Pistole presented the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation Wednesday with TSA’s newly implemented security efforts to secure transportation and travel in the U.S.

“We continue to evolve our security approach by examining the procedures and technologies we use, how specific security procedures are carried out, and how screening is conducted,” Pistole said.

Currently, the TSA is testing a voluntary passenger pre-screening initiative called TSA’s Pre Check in certain terminals within the Miami, Dallas-Forth Worth, Detroit and Atlanta airports. 

“This pilot program will help assess measures designed to enhance security, by placing more focus on pre-screening individuals who volunteer information about themselves prior to flying in order to potentially expedite the travel experience,” Pistole said.

According to Pistole, pre-screening passengers bolsters air travel by allowing travelers to pass through security in a quicker fashion.

“By learning more about travelers through information they voluntarily provide, and combining that information with our multi-layered system of aviation security, we can better focus our limited resources on higher-risk and unknown passengers,” Pistole said.  

TSA plans to expand the program for frequent flyers at the McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas in December.

Napolitano Grilled On New Deportation Policies

By Adrianna McGinley

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano defended the Obama administration’s new guidelines prioritizing criminal deportations during an appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday, arguing that it makes sense economically.

Napolitano cited that each removal costs DHS between 23 and 30 thousand dollars, not including the cost to the Justice Department. She said this means DHS is only able to finance 400,000 removals per year, and with over 10 million estimated undocumented immigrants in the country, prioritization is essential.

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said he is concerned because ICE leaders told him the new “confusing” guidelines have caused low officer moral. 

“The new standards calling on them to consider DREAM Act type issues in determining whether or not the person they detain ought to be released or not, whether they’ve got a high school diploma, whether or not they might be a witness to a crime, that these are very confusing directives and that makes it more difficult for them to act effectively to apprehend people here illegally.” 

Sessions then accused Napolitano of “rolling her eyes” at the statement.

“From me as a person who worked with federal agents for years,” Sessions said. “When you hear this kind of comment and votes of no confidence, I’ve never heard of that, you should be paying real attention to them, not rolling your eyes at them.”

“I’m not rolling my eyes, what I’m suggesting is that results matter here, and priorities really matter,” Napolitano defended. “The results reflect the priorities we have set, and these are priorities that are consistent with prior administrations.”

“We could just remove anybody without any priorities, and that would be one way to do it,” Napolitano said. “Or the other way, and the better way, and probably the way you [Sen. Sessions] ran your office when you were a prosecutor, is to say we want to focus on expediting removal of those who are criminals, of those who are fugitives, of those who are repeat violators, of those who are recent entrance, meaning within five years in to the United States, and what you are now seeing is that the numbers reflect those priorities.”

Sessions also questioned reports citing a significant increase in deportations over the last few years saying, “I’m told that ICE carried over from last year 19,000 removals and they’re counting them this year, and it’s sort of a gimmick to making the removals look higher than they are.”

Napolitano denied the accusation.

“I think that what you’re referring to Senator is in the movement from FY ‘09 to FY ‘10, we made the decision that we would not count a removal until there was an actual verified departure from the country, and that had the effect of moving some removals from ‘09 in to ‘10.”

The Committee also questioned Napolitano on TSA procedures and DHS efforts to increase cyber security, as well as detainee treatment and standards of immigrant detention centers brought to light last night in a Frontline special called “Lost in Detention”.

9-11 Commission Warns U.S. Still Vulnerable 10 Years After Attacks

Seven members of the 9/11 commission accused lawmakers Wednesday of leaving the U.S. vulnerable to attacks by failing to implement the recommendation the commission made in 2004.

“We are safer but we are not as secure yet as we can or should be,” Chairman Thomas Kean told the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) in Washington, D.C.

The commission’s original report contained 41 recommendations to improve US security. Due to insufficient progress, however, the committee issued a new report Wednesday detailing nine commission recommendations that remain unfulfilled and are causing a gap in the country’s security. 

Among those failures was the stubbornness of Congress.

“Reformation of congress was a frustrating thing to ask but we still asked for it,” Commissioner Fred F. Fielding stated. “However, they did not make the bicameral committee we requested and instead are maintaining the status quo.”

One lawmaker, however, responded by accusing the administration of dragging its feet on cracking down on so-called “lone-wolf” terrorists operating inside the U.S.

“I am troubled that the White House has not named a lead federal agency to coordinate disparate efforts to combat homegrown terrorism,” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), the top Republican on the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee. “I urge the Administration to establish a unified front against this important and evolving threat.”

Commission Vice Chairman Lee H. Hamilton related that the nation’s detection system falls short in critical ways. While the US has improved its security check on those who arrive in the country, there is still an ineffective system that monitors who leaves the country or remains in the country with expired visas. Hamilton revealed that this is exactly how two 9-11 attackers were able to escape capture. 

Another failure of the commission that all panelists agreed upon was their inability to place full control of the entire intelligence community in the hands of the Director of National Intelligence.

Overall, panelists revealed that there are still many communication issues within the government, ambiguity with how to deal with detainees, under developed cyber security and ineffective research and testing performed by Transportation Security on explosive-detection equipment.

“The commission laid out recommendations in a functioning reality,” Hamilton deplored, “and I have no idea why it has not been done.”

While the report seems very grim, panelists did agree that the US is extensively safer than it was 10 years ago.

“We have definitely seen progress but we can’t pat ourselves on the back too strongly,” Hamilton warned. “We haven’t solved the problem and this is great criticism of the US government.”

Sen Jim DeMint's "Union Bosses" Game

As soon as the Senate returns from its break, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reader will schedule a formal roll call vote on the nomination of Errol Southers to be Administrator of the Transportation Security Administration. Southers is former assistant chief of the Los Angeles Airport Police, and a former FBI agent. His confirmation hearings concluded this month, and his confirmation is considered highly likely.

Why is Reid holding this vote? It's an unusual move. It's because Sen. Jim DeMint put a hold on the nomination because he is concerned about unionization at the TSA. During his confirmation hearings, Southers wouldn't say whether he would support or oppose unionization efforts until he was "confirmed, in place and hearing from stakeholders about the issue."

That's not good enough for DeMint, whose spokesman Wesley Denton says: "This is an important debate because many Americans don't want someone running the TSA who stands ready to give union bosses the power to veto or delay future security measures at our airports."

DeMint through his spokesman makes it sound as though Southers has already made up his mind to support unionization, which is not what Southers said. However, the real meat here is in the phrase "union bosses," a classic derogatory term for union leaders. Further, the suggestion is that these "bosses" would veto or delay future security measures at our airports. Why exactly would they do that? Because they're unamerican, likely scary socialists and possibly craven communists? Why else would they deliberately endanger their own country?

DeMint now blames Reid for not allowing a debate on the nomination before adjourning, and still won't lift his hold.

Why do TSA workers want to unionize? Arbitrary work rules, a high rate of workplace injuries, high turnover rates, unfair promotion and scheduling policies, low morale and inadequate pay, for starters. I don't know about you, but I want the 40,000 people at the x-ray machines and everywhere else to be at least minimally content in their jobs.

It's interesting that Immigration and Custom Service employees and Federal Border Guards are unionized, but in 2003 President Bush decided it would threaten national security to allow the TSA to unionize. Don't the Federal Border Guards have something to do with national security?

DeMint is holding up Errol Southers because he can, also because he wants to defeat President Obama any time he can (remember Waterloo), and because he hates unions. The fact that the nation's national security got caught in the middle was apparently of little concern to him. Perhaps he didn't expect an attack on Christmas Day. Not many people did.