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House Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., launched his committee in the new Democratic-controlled Congress by vowing to take a hard look at the Homeland Security Department.

"DHS is a department in sore need of congressional oversight," said Thompson at the panel's organizational meeting.

Committee spokeswoman Dena Graziano said Thompson had developed an oversight plan calling for probes of department contracting practices and other "waste, fraud and abuse" issues. "There was little or no oversight of DHS" by the Republican-controlled congresses in recent years, she added.

Graziano said Thompson also wanted to review the department's record on promoting better communications among first responders. "It is important to him," she said, noting that he had fought to secure funding for Homeland Security Department programs to develop interoperable communication systems for police and fire personnel.

Graziano said that Thompson, whose home state of Mississippi was hammered by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, also intended to investigate the plight of storm victims who have been denied insurance claims on the grounds that their homeowners' policies did not cover flood damage.

Homeland Security ranking member Peter King, R-N.Y., agreed that Homeland Security Department was a candidate for "extensive oversight" and said he and other Republicans on the panel looked "forward to working with [Thompson] and cooperating whenever we can."

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff was seen leaving the committee's offices about an hour before the panel met.

For the new Congress, the Democrats revamped the panel's subcommittee structure. They eliminated two panels -- the Prevention of Nuclear and Biological Attack Subcommittee and the Investigation Subcommittee.

The Investigation panel was rolled into the new Management, Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee chaired by freshman Rep. Chris Carney, D-Pa. Its ranking member is Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala. As an officer in the Navy Reserve, Carney served as a senior intelligence analyst and adviser in the Pentagon for several years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

COMMENTS

• I have been waiting to hear from Bennie Thompon also. I have reported that the people at 111 Massachusetts Avenue are inhaling sewer smells/gases and they take don't take it serious. My manager has gone so far as to tell people that he can smell for me and tell people that I am smelling anything. Well, I wonder how he will feel when eventually this all gets resolved and they charge him with criminal neglience, because I have filed complaints since October 2007. I got WASA to unblock the sewer at the corner of "H" street and New Jersey Avenue. Does he smell for the other 15 employees in the building that smell the sewer? Does he smell for the security guards that wash the sewer down the drain in the loading docks? I was told that I had to sit in the seat where the toxins were coming in at. Did not matter whether it was making me sick or not, did not matter whether my nasal cavity was blocked and caused shortness of breath, just as long as you're there to do that work. Someone needs to contact Consumer and Regulartory Affairs and make them inspect the unsanitary conditions of the building. They are supposed to inspect all buildings the District of Columbia when there is a complaint. Maybe if a white indiviudal contacts them, they will respond. There are a couple of white individuals that smell the odor also, but they are relying on their management to keep them safe. How can they have a cafeteria in that building with those stinky smells in that building. And another thing, we have never been able to drink the water in the building. What's that about? Is the water like the water of Mexico? Hope Bennie comes along and does something soon. What happened to the joint effort of the agencies? Only after a diaster, they respond? Why not prevent a diaster from happening? Veronica Chase Posted March 17, 2008 10:33 AM
• Sorry to make you "sick" by using that term to describe the reason DHS was created, but it is what it is, and there's no way to sugar-coat it. There are many people who are still not aware of the history of this failed department, who need to be educated. What really makes me sick are the idiots who thought this disaster up, and who are now nowhere to be found while DHS flounders. GovExec.com reader Posted January 25, 2007 11:27 AM
• I couldn't agree more with all of the arguments against ICE, CBP and the entire DHS, and I have made many of them myself. But if I hear the "knee-jerk reaction" phrase one more time I'm going to check into a nuthouse. I can't take that severely over-used, worn-out, sickening cliché any more, regardless of how accurate it may be. GovExec.com reader Posted January 24, 2007 8:23 PM