Panels set hearings, key Homeland Security posts still vacant

Key senators plan to hold hearings in two weeks into the failed Dec. 25 airliner bombing plot, while Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., will try to force a vote to confirm a chief for the Transportation Security Administration.

The Senate Commerce Committee is expected to hold one of the first hearings Jan. 20 into the bombing plot, in which a 23-year-old Nigerian man, Abdul Farouk Umar Abdulmutallab, allegedly tried to set off an explosive device on a Northwest Airlines flight on its approach to Detroit.

"This incident raises concerns not only about the effectiveness of our aviation security screening, especially internationally, but also about the degree to which we are connecting the dots and sharing information in the intelligence community," Commerce Committee Chairman John (Jay) Rockefeller, D-W.V., said in a statement.

The session will coincide with a similar hearing by the Senate Judiciary Committee, Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., announced on Monday.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., expects to hold a hearing Jan. 21 as part of a larger investigation into the incident. The hearing is likely to be closed.

And Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., and ranking member Susan Collins, R-Maine, hope to begin a series of hearings on whether an overhaul of the intelligence community passed by Congress in 2004 is working, and if laws need to be changed, an aide said.

Follow-on hearings will look at whether changes are needed in how the government goes about placing terrorism suspects on watch lists, as well as airport screening operations, the aide added.

Across the Capitol, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, has asked the Obama administration to give his panel a briefing Jan. 13 on its internal review into the failed attack.

Meanwhile, a bitter partisan battle continues to play out over the nomination of Erroll Southers to head TSA, which oversees aviation security. Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., who has blocked the nomination, indicated Monday he would support a Senate vote if given floor time to debate the national security implications of giving TSA screeners collective bargaining rights.

Reid plans to file cloture on the nomination when the Senate returns, warning Republicans not to play politics with national security. "Not only is this a failed strategy but a dangerous one as well with serious potential consequences for our country," Reid said last week.

Southers is not the only nominee to a senior Homeland Security post who has yet to be confirmed. The nomination of Alan Bersin to head Customs and Border Protection also has yet to be taken up by the Senate Finance Committee.

A Senate aide noted that CBP plays a significant role in screening people coming into the country and sharing intelligence throughout the government.

A Finance Committee aide said the panel is "still in the vetting process and no hearing date has been set as yet, though Chairman [Max] Baucus [D-Mont.] is moving the process as quickly as possible."

President Obama's pick for Homeland Security undersecretary for intelligence and analysis, Caryn Wagner, also has yet to be considered by the full Senate.

"The government's efforts to protect the American public are not helped, and in fact may be handicapped, by those holding up the nominations of a number of critical Department of Homeland Security agency heads," a Lieberman spokeswoman said Monday.

Meanwhile, Obama plans to meet with senior Homeland Security and counterterrorism officials Tuesday to discuss an internal review into the failed bombing plot.

And, in light of the failed attack, Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee last week called on their Democratic counterparts to hold hearings this month on national security issues.

Five of the leading Republicans on the panel signed a letter calling for hearings, including House Appropriations ranking member Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., and Defense Appropriations Subcommittee ranking member C.W. (Bill) Young, R-Fla.

A Democratic Appropriations spokesman did not rule out hearings, but said there was "nothing to announce right now."

Humberto Sanchez contributed to this report.