Senate Dems rap homeland security communications efforts

The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee on Wednesday released a Democratic staff report criticizing the Bush administration for not adequately supporting state and local homeland security officials and "first responders" to emergencies.

The report acknowledges some progress but concludes that the administration's promises for increased information sharing among federal, state and local officials have not been fulfilled.

The report found that there is no systematic way for communicating with federal officials, either to get information to them or from them. In many cases, states also cannot share information with each other.

"This is not an easy task, but so far I haven't seen the kind of leadership from the administration that is necessary to break down barriers, cut through deeply ingrained cultures and build the partnerships that are absolutely critical to homeland security," said committee ranking Democrat Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, a potential challenger to President Bush in 2004.