The Homeland Security Department's policy chief Thursday cautioned the nation's airlines not to push to have the federal government take fingerprints of foreigners leaving from the nation's airports, saying shifting the responsibility to the public sector would likely lead to flight disruptions. The department is locked in a major policy dispute with the airlines over who should verify when foreigners leave the country. The department proposed a rule last month that would require the airlines to take fingerprints of foreigners before they board their flights. The airlines have argued that implementing such a system would cost them billions of dollars, while running it nationwide is inherently a task that should be done by federal authorities.

Stewart Baker, assistant Homeland Security secretary for policy, said the airlines should think again about wanting the federal government to be responsible for taking fingerprints. "I think that would be worse for industry and I'm hoping when they think about this they will conclude that . . . somebody's got to do it and the least expensive way to do is to have the airlines do it," Baker said in a speech at the Woodrow Wilson Center. Homeland Security officials have said they believe the airlines will do a more efficient job collecting fingerprints. They have argued that requiring fingerprint collection at federal airport checkpoints would be cumbersome and disruptive. The rule does not specify where airlines would have to do the collection, meaning they could build a process into their operations in any way that works best for them. The department is accepting public comment on the proposed rule, which is expected to go into effect in January.

Baker announced that the department is working to develop a system to expedite the processing of U.S. citizens and foreigners as they enter the country at airports. Dubbed "Global Entry," travelers who voluntarily give the government fingerprint scans and personal information will be able to enter the country at airports through kiosks instead of having to waiting in line to have their passports inspected by Customs officers. A traveler would have his or her fingerprints scanned by a kiosk to verify his or her identity. Baker said Homeland Security plans to begin accepting applications this month from U.S. citizens. He said the program will first go into operation at Dulles International Airport and New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport, but he did not provide a starting date. He said the U.S. government eventually plans to let foreigners enroll in the program.

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A supplemental spending bill that would fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could be on the House floor as soon as Thursday, according to House Democratic leadership sources, while Senate appropriators continue plans to mark up the measure. A final decision to move ahead will be based on reaction of rank-and-file members after a Democratic Caucus briefing Tuesday. "If we don't have the votes, it's not going to move," said one senior Democratic aide. House leaders, who are likely to skip a House Appropriations Committee markup and take the bill straight to the floor, are meeting Monday afternoon ahead of Tuesday's Caucus meeting. The bill is expected to include $108 billion for fiscal 2008 and $70 billion for fiscal 2009 to cover war funding. President Bush sent Congress Friday a request detailing how the fiscal 2009 $70 billion slice of the funding would be spent, including $66 billion for the Defense Department and $4 billion for the State Department and other international operations. Of the Defense funding, $45.1 billion would be used for the Iraqi and Afghan theaters.

But Democratic leaders are exploring the possibility of including funds for domestic programs, such as increased veterans' education benefits, extending unemployment insurance and energy tax credits. When House leaders bring the measure to the floor, the plan is to have three separate votes on the war spending, war policy and other domestic considerations. The maneuver is expected to ease passage of the measure by winning the support of the Out of Iraq Caucus, a group of over 70 Democrats seeking to bring combat troops home.

Meanwhile, the office of Senate Appropriations Chairman Robert Byrd, D-W.V., Monday said he intends to holds a markup on the war supplemental bill. However, a date and time has not been set. Byrd's plans come as Senate Democratic leaders are deciding whether the bill needs to be marked up.

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International investments, the riskiest fund option in the Thrift Savings Plan, led the pack for earnings in April, while only fixed-income bonds lost ground.

The international, or I Fund, which invests in stocks in Europe, Australia and some countries in Asia, grew the most, at 5.55 percent in April. The fund posted 12-month losses of 0.88 percent.

The S Fund, which invests in the stocks of small- and mid-size American companies, was the second-highest earner, growing 5.30 percent last month. The fund tracks the Dow Jones Wilshire 4500 Index, which invests in the 4,500 next-largest domestic companies after the 500 tracked by the common stock, or C Fund. The fund experienced 12-month losses of 5.70 percent.

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Several key federal agencies stand to lose more than 10 percent of their leadership team during the transition to the next administration, according to a new report issued by INPUT, an industry consulting firm.

The study shows that the Education Department would be hit the hardest, losing more than 22 percent of its top personnel, including political appointees, Senior Executive Service members and senior-level managers. The State, Defense and Labor departments would see declines of more than 14 percent while the Homeland Security Department, which has not been through a presidential transition, would experience leadership losses of more than 11 percent.

A new report by the Congressional Research Service indicates that transitions -- particularly the first in the post-Sept. 11 era -- pose a high risk to national security.

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In the old days, everyone was linked to a lug nut, and Jim Kallstrom liked it that way.

It was 1985, a simpler time for a cop like Kallstrom, who was in charge of setting telephone wiretaps on suspected drug dealers and mobsters for the FBI's New York City field office. In New York, Kallstrom's cases were often won on the basis of incriminating evidence surreptitiously snatched from the mouths of criminal defendants through their phone lines. With a mere 203,000 Americans using mobile phones, people were still tied to the ground, and that gave Kallstrom's world a certain comforting order.

On any given day, he could stand on a street corner in Manhattan, gaze up at an apartment building with its neat rows and columns of units stacked atop each other, and know that inside each one there was a telephone, tethered by thin copper wire to a single point, sometimes several miles away. In his mind's eye, Kallstrom could have imagined shrinking himself to the size of an electron and traveling over the phone line, down to the bottom of the building, then shooting beneath the streets, until he ended up in the basement of the telephone company's switching station. There, the wire emerged, pegged to a rack by a single copper lug nut. Acres of racks lined the walls, each holding rows and columns of lug nuts and their wires, neatly stacked atop each other -- the city of New York in analog miniature.

Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=39830&dcn=e_hsw

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Democratic Policy Committee Chairman Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., is renewing his efforts to create a panel modeled after the Truman Committee that would investigate fraud and abuse in Iraq War contracting, but he faces an uphill battle.

As Dorgan envisions it, the committee would include members from both parties and would have subpoena power. The panel, similar to one used by then-Sen. Harry Truman, D-Mo., to investigate World War II programs, is needed to combat contracting abuses in Iraq, the North Dakota lawmaker said.

Dorgan has conducted similar oversight hearings under the policy panel's umbrella, but said the bipartisan makeup, subpoena power and singular focus of the special committee would be far more effective and efficient.

Full story: http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=39911&dcn=e_hsw

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"The military can't do it all."

-- House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton, D-Mo., arguing for a larger role for civilian agencies in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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