Government Executive - Authors - Chloe Albanesius

OMB aims to link all agencies to e-rule site by 2007

Chloe Albanesius — Mon, 05 Dec 2005 00:00:00 -0500

The agency launched regulation.gov in 2003, but much of the work on the Web site would be considered "foundational work," Karen Evans said during a Capitol Hill e-rulemaking symposium. E-government "now is really focused on getting results."

The site now has more than 8,000 new rules created each year by 160 agencies and there are at least 500 regulations open for comment, Evans said.

"Having the agencies put all this information into one place where it can be searched [is] really very groundbreaking for us," she said. Evans stressed that "the biggest challenge is not the technology," but agency business operations and how well they work with the system.

When launching the "second generation" of regulation.gov in September, OMB pondered whether more comments produced a better rule. "The goal here is not just to measure number of comments, but our goal really is the outcome -- to have a good rule that goes forward as we go with all of our programs," Evans said.

"Overall, the goal is to really use and think of the federal government as one enterprise, and rulemaking is one of the major businesses that we're in," she said.

Cynthia Farina, a professor at Cornell Law School, questioned whether making e-rulemaking available online would "raise expectations about [comment] legitimacy as more people have the opportunity to participate more broadly."

Administrators have not examined "how we use the [regulation.gov] technology to try to assist the more average member of the public" leave comments "in a way that makes them feel that they have expressed their view [without] getting in the way of the agency's job," Farina said.

"There are those [comments] that aren't helpful," like those that make "blanket comments on the intent" of the rule rather than details of the rule itself, said Don Arbuckle, OMB's deputy administrator for information and regulatory affairs.

The agency sees a number of Freedom of Information Act requests from inmates and elderly Americans, presumably because they have time on their hands, Arbuckle said. "The agency will have to find a way ... to go about encouraging quality of comments."

But overall, the site will "enable those that are interested" in a particular topic, he said. One suggestion was to "have a set of serial comments, where people got to comment on people's comments, which could be quite useful to the rule makers in the agency."

Sally Katzen, a former OMB administrator for information and regulatory affairs, expressed concern about funding levels. "In the best of times, it is Congress' pleasure to provide funds for new projects, particularly those back home, rather than those to make the government function better," she said.

"We have the words, we don't have the resources," she said.

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Bush's plan to fight bird flu relies on technology initiatives

Chloe Albanesius — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 00:00:00 -0500

"We do not have evidence that a pandemic is imminent," but history suggests that the world someday is "likely to face" another emergency, Bush said at the National Naval Medical Center.

Last month, he announced plans for a global network of surveillance and preparedness intended to quickly detect and respond to disease outbreaks. To date, 88 countries and nine international organizations have joined the effort, Bush said. His plan includes a request for $2.8 billion to accelerate the development of cell-culture technology.

"The cornerstone of our strategy is to develop new technologies that will allow us to produce new vaccines rapidly," Bush said. The use of cell-culture techniques would allow for the faster development of vaccines if a flu outbreak occurs, he said. "Right now, most vaccines are still produced with 1950s technology using chicken eggs that are infected with the influenza virus."

Bush called for $538 million for pandemic preparedness. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt will be charged with bringing together state and local officials for the development of community-based flu-response plans and exercises.

To inform the public of White House efforts, Bush also announced a Web site that includes general information, as well as data on monitoring outbreaks, planning and response, travel and transportation issues, and research activities.

Rep. Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat and member of the House Homeland Security Committee, quickly panned Bush's ideas as too little, too late. "Our country is not as prepared as we need to be to effectively carry out his plan," he said in a statement. "You can't cram for a pandemic."

Federal agencies have long called for a concrete, national preparedness plan for a flu pandemic. Markey accused the administration of having "nickel-and-dimed preparedness while writing a blank check for the war in Iraq."

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said Bush's plan has a "gaping hole." Bush's plan would only provide vaccines for 7 percent of the population, though experts call for enough vaccines to cover up to 50 percent of Americans, he said.

Schumer, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and other Democrats were to gather on Capitol Hill on Tuesday afternoon to voice their opposition.

The Senate on Thursday approved language on flu pandemic preparedness as part of a fiscal 2006 spending bill. Of the $8 billion proposed for the effort, $750 million would go toward hospital preparedness and health information technology networks, $60 million would be spent on increased global surveillance, and $75 million would be for communications and outreach in the event of an emergency.

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Lawmakers criticize federal officials on emergency response communications

Chloe Albanesius — Wed, 26 Oct 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Long before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, "the FCC dropped the ball" on such interoperability by not giving emergency responders the "necessary networking and bands," said Rep. Bill Pascrell of New Jersey, the panel's ranking Democrat. The agency "left our first responders out to dry, and somebody's got to be held accountable."

The FCC has taken more of an interest in curtailing obscenity and approving communications mergers than public safety, Pascrell complained.

He accused Ken Moran, director of the FCC's Homeland Security Enforcement Bureau, of a lack of urgency on interoperability. Pascrell pressed Moran on what the agency has done since 2001.

Moran pointed to the 24 megahertz of spectrum in the 700 MHz band that the commission will make available to first responders once the transition from analog to digital television is complete.

"That's after the fact," Pascrell said, before questioning whether Moran was listening to subcommittee members "with one ear."

Subcommittee Chairman Dave Reichert, R-Wash., acknowledged that "some progress has been made" via the digital TV legislation before Congress. But Reichert, a former police officer, added that he shares Pascrell's "passion" on the issue.

Reichert said interoperability problems did not suddenly begin on 9/11 but have been plaguing emergency responders for decades. Reichert said that when he was a law enforcer in the early 1970s, he tried to notify fellow officers of an armed suspect lying in wait. But his radio failed, and he was forced to tackle the young offender to prevent him from shooting unsuspecting colleagues. "That's not five years ago, that's almost 30 years ago," he said.

But when asked about the Homeland Security Department's biggest vulnerability, SAFECOM Director David Boyd said the issue is "not technical." Once local communities learn to work together, the basic technology falls into place, he said. "We need leadership and commitment for that to happen." SAFECOM is part of Homeland Security's science and technology directorate.

Funding is a major issue, given that local communities must pay for system upgrades, the FCC's Moran said. The agency is working on plans to eliminate interference, primarily in the 800 MHz band of spectrum, he said, calling money the biggest issue.

"Is Motorola the problem?" Rep. David Dicks, D-Wash., asked Boyd, referring to the main provider of emergency communications equipment.

Boyd was reluctant to blame one manufacturer but acknowledged that the private sector "has a tendency to build proprietary components that are hard to link" and become tied to one company. Homeland Security is trying to move toward a more open system, he said.

That could include Internet protocol systems, Boyd said. Officials must comprehend that catastrophic communications failures often include telephone lines, which largely act as the conduit for the Internet. But Internet protocol-based systems, which differ from the Internet at large, offer "powerful capabilities" and the "real possibility for serious interoperability," he said.

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Former DHS chief criticizes local response efforts

Chloe Albanesius — Tue, 20 Sep 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Officials in New Orleans had "done their fair share of tabletop" exercises to prepare for a Category 3 hurricane, Ridge said at the Commonwealth of Virginia Information Technology Symposium here. But "given the unique geography" of the Gulf Coast, they "never did planning around a Category 5" storm and did not consider the possibility of the levees breaking, he said.

"It's easy to be the quarterback after the game is over," he said. "We need leadership at all levels," but "local training must be vigorous." The lackluster response of officials had "a lot to do" with the fact that officials had not prepared for "worst-case scenarios."

The hurricane's devastation could expedite the effort to establish a national wireless system, said Ridge, who resigned from the department last year. "Ultimately, Congress and the FCC will figure it out."

Robert Gates, who directed the Central Intelligence Agency in the early 1990s, was more philosophical. It is difficult in a democracy to "generate the political will" to prepare for a disaster in advance, he said.

Officials conducting tabletop exercises must decide when it is time to transfer power from a mayor to a governor or from a governor to the federal government. If those decisions are not made, the nation will encounter the same "delays ... and lack of leadership" displayed in the aftermath of Katrina, Gates said.

There must be a way to "cascade authority if someone is not up to the job," he said. "At what point do you say, 'This is not going to hack it?'"

"There's a value to getting governors and mayors involved," said Ridge, a former governor of Pennsylvania. "They get their heads wrapped around [security] issues as much as Homeland Security."

When asked if greater security would mean an increased number of surveillance cameras on the street, Ridge said the ultimate decision is a "local issue" but added that he personally is "willing to tolerate a certain number" of cameras if they improve public safety.

Gates demurred, joking that during his tenure at the CIA, "we spent a lot of years putting cameras where people didn't know where they were."

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OMB: Agencies must use advanced Internet by 2008

Chloe Albanesius — Wed, 29 Jun 2005 00:00:00 -0400

The office said it would issue a policy memorandum dictating full federal "IPv6" compliance in an effort to spur its deployment throughout government agencies.

The Defense Department currently is the only federal body to have made strides in implementing IPv6. Due to this "lack of government-wide progress" and concerns about the "complexities of transition," OMB will release a "comprehensive transition planning guide," OMB Administrator Karen Evans said in written testimony for the House Government Reform Committee.

The five-point compliance guide will require agencies to familiarize themselves with transition issues, an effort Evans described as the "overarching challenge" of moving from the current IPv4 to IPv6. The move will "require many changes in the architecture of many agency networks," as well as "large capital investments and labor resources."

An undertaking so complex will require an agency point person to lead and coordinate the transition, Evans said. "This person will be responsible for monitoring, enforcing and reporting on the transition and implementation of IPv6 within the agency."

With this person in place, agencies will be charged with developing, by the first quarter of fiscal 2006, an inventory of existing IP-capable equipment and an analysis to determine the financial impact and risks of the transition, Evans said.

"While we know that IPv6 technologies are deployed throughout the government ... we do not know specifically which ones, how many there are, or precisely where they are located," she said. "For cost, the agencies must report on estimates for planning, infrastructure acquisition, training and risk mitigation."

Finally, the government's Chief Information Officers Council will be charged with developing "more detailed IPv6 implementing guidance" by year's end, Evans said. The group will have to issue guidance on developing a sequencing plan, IPv6 integration, training materials and test plans for compatibility.

With these efforts in place, OMB wants all agencies to use IPv6 by June 2008, Evans said. "Setting this firm date is necessary to maintain focus on this important issue."

In a 41 page report released in May, the Government Accountability Office said that federal agencies other than the Defense Department have yet to plan for IPv6.

David Powner, GAO director of information technology management issues, told the committee that the government is behind the "8 ball" from a leadership perspective in implementing IPv6.

"It's clear we don't have a deadline like Y2K," Powner said. "[But] if we allow others to develop IPv6 before us, they'll be the ones to develop the killer application."

Having federal agencies work on transition efforts will help "further increase industry activities in the United States," said John Curran, chairman of the American Registry for Internet Numbers.

Jawad Khaki, corporate vice president for Microsoft, pushed for a "market-based conversion to IPv6 [as] the most technologically feasible and least disruptive" transition process. He speculated that the flexible nature of IPv6 would mean that conversion activity would happen "at the edge of the network" with home computers, eventually moving to "encompass the rest of the global Internet infrastructure."

Microsoft's next operating system, dubbed Longhorn, will be "fully IPv6-capable," Khaki said.

"To reap the benefits from IPv6 federal agencies first must begin to plan and develop requirements that will take full advantage of what the new protocol offers," committee Chairman Tom Davis said. The Virginia Republican expressed concern about the security and competitive risks associated with the IPv6 transition.

Reporter Daniel Pulliam contributed to this story.

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Report on DHS cybersecurity initiatives expected next month

Chloe Albanesius — Wed, 08 Jun 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Building the response plan and securing critical infrastructure are two of the cyber-security division's main goals, acting Director Andy Purdy said at a meeting of the National Information Security and Privacy Advisory Board held here.

Purdy said his unit is currently mapping agency capabilities from a cyber-defense perspective, identifying which of those capabilities must be tied into the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) on a continual basis, and identifying US-CERT's capabilities.

Homeland Security will give a preliminary briefing of its findings later this month to the coordination group and will provide an extended briefing in July, he said. The hope is that the document will convince agencies to support the response plan.

The department also is coordinating international efforts of cyber security, Purdy said, but officials first must understand the capabilities of the domestic system. "To prepare for [future] attacks, we need more coordination."

As a result, Homeland Security is working with a number of Internet service providers (ISPs) to craft attack scenarios and learn how to work together, he said. "ISPs do this every day."

Purdy said his division is placing more emphasis on risk management and mitigation. Public-private partnerships have helped "create more clarity [about] what's needed to mitigate resources and where those resources must go," he said.

Those partnerships are focusing on Internet disruption, control systems and software assurance.

"It's not just up to the users to secure cyber security," Purdy said. "We're calling on [software and hardware] makers to reduce the risk."

Board member Steven Lipner, director of security engineering strategy at Microsoft, asked whether that call would require companies to go beyond the "common criteria" standard, which issues requirements for how products are evaluated.

"We'd like to avoid creating anything new if we can avoid it," Purdy responded. "Companies should leverage the common criteria and raise the bar."

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is scheduled to address the business community on cyber-security issues later this week, underscoring the emphasis the agency is placing on the issue, Purdy said. "We're making sure the senior leadership is involved to drive the message. There's a more apparent commitment to cyber security."

Purdy's division also is trying to get clearance for an e-newsletter that would provide users with an update on agency policy every three months, he said.

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GAO: Still not enough work on cybersecurity

Chloe Albanesius — Thu, 26 May 2005 00:00:00 -0400

GAO praised DHS for establishing a computer emergency readiness team with stakeholders from the public and private sectors, as well as for setting up information sharing forums for federal and law enforcement officials. The department, however, has failed to address in full any of its 13 responsibilities, including the development of a national plan for critical infrastructure protection and identifying cyber threats and vulnerabilities, the GAO said.

The agency recommended that DHS engage stakeholders to prioritize cybersecurity responsibilities. The report (GAO-05-434) also called on the department's National Cyber Security Division (NCSD) to draft a list of activities that will help it address challenges that are slowing progress and come up with identity performance measures and milestones it can reach.

DHS agreed that "much remains to be done" on cybersecurity, but the agency took umbrage with the assertion that actions "have prevented us from achieving significant results in improving the nation's cyber security posture," Steven Pecinovsky, DHS liaison to GAO, wrote on May 3 in response to a draft version of the GAO report.

The department also agreed that prioritizing with stakeholders is "critical," but said that the NCSD already has a prioritized list of activities and goals that are updated on a quarterly basis. GAO "does not explain why these efforts are insufficient or what specific actions GAO would like to see accomplished," Pecinovsky wrote. DHS already has identified performance measures and milestones and "implemented procedures to systematically track organizational progress," he said.

House Homeland Security Chairman Christopher Cox, R-Calif., said the report affirms that "the status quo does not serve our cyber security needs." DHS needs to work harder at coordinating from within on cyber security, he said. "The nation needs a principal federal authority on cyber security to secure this vital component of our national infrastructure."

The Homeland Security Department reauthorization bill, H.R. 1817, sponsored by Cox and passed by the House would create an assistant secretary for cyber security within the department.

Homeland Security ranking Democrat Bennie Thompson of Mississippi said in a statement that the report shows "the [Bush] administration has not done enough to build [DHS'] credibility as the leader of our cyber security efforts. So much of our daily lives -- from our banking to our water and electricity supplies -- rely on a strong cyber infrastructure."

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., who also sits on the committee, agreed. "The department needs to be advancing on cyber security," she said. "We cannot afford to sit back and make minimal, if any, progress in critical infrastructure protection."

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Lawmakers lament lack of funding for science agency

Chloe Albanesius — Thu, 12 May 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Actual NSF funding is nowhere near authorization levels while money for the National Institutes of Health has doubled, Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., said at a Capitol Hill meeting on nanomaterials sponsored by the Federation of Materials Societies. NSF is the lead agency involved in the federal government's multi-agency nanotechnology research initiative.

Holt, a physicist, acknowledged that NIH produces key technologies, but he said "for us to use the NIH funding ... we've got to look at our base. The instrumentations and the technologies and the methodologies" that help with many agency programs "in many cases come from NSF."

Holt, House Science Energy Subcommittee Chairwoman Judy Biggert, R-Ill., and House Science Technology Subcommittee Chairman Vernon Ehlers, R-Mich., have been circulating a letter among members that calls for $6.1 billion in NSF funding for fiscal 2006 instead of the $5.75 billion proposed by President Bush.

"We keep talking and talking about research and development, and yet I see a slipping in comparison to other countries," Biggert said. The United States is still an R&D leader, "but we are slipping badly."

Biggert "thought we'd made some pretty good strides in Congress, but you see the dollars sliding for R&D," she said. "If we're going to maintain our position in the global economy," the United States must have a competitive R&D policy.

"We cannot compete with the low wages" workers abroad are willing to accept, "so we have to have the jobs and the businesses that can produce" products that will drive the market, Biggert said. Developments in the industry will produce new products "that will impact energy, ... information technology and homeland security."

One federal program to feel the effects of decreased science funding is the National Institute of Standards and Technology's Advanced Technology Program (ATP). Bush did not request any funding for the program in his fiscal 2006 budget and has sought to cut the program in previous years.

It would be a "disaster to cancel this program," said Mark Kryder, chief technology officer and senior vice president of research at Seagate Technology and a Carnegie Mellon University engineering professor.

"This program was highly successful, no doubt about it. [ATP] brought the whole community together to work together," he said. Without this level of research, he said, technologies like Apple's iPod digital music player, would not have come to the market as quickly, Kryder said. Seagate is currently working on an ATP project for heat-assisted magnetic recording, he said.

Some nanotech industry representatives say ATP is particularly helpful to nanotech companies because of the difficulty they face in obtaining funding to help commercialize their products.

But congressional critics have argued that the program amounts to corporate welfare.

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Labor Department unveils updated benefits Web tools

Chloe Albanesius — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 00:00:00 -0400

Using the "Customized Connections" program, agencies will be able to link to GovBenefits.gov through their main Web sites via a portal that will retain the design and structure of the original site. Users seeking benefits information who click through Labor's Web site, for example, will be provided with the benefits data in the same font and colors used by Labor, "so they don't feel like it's a different site," Steven Law, deputy secretary of Labor, said at an event touting the site's refurbishing.

The initiative will help the department in its goal to decrease the number of redundant Web sites and "consolidate cross-governmental functions," Law said. Agencies can include any of the four available GovBenefits components on their Web sites: keywords search; results by specific question; browse by category; and latest news.

Law said traffic to GovBenefits has grown exponentially; the site gets about 150,000 hits per month. Law last year set a goal of having 1,000 benefits Web sites in the GovBenefits database, an objective "to my great surprise," that was surpassed to reach a total of 1,031 as of Friday, he said. His goal for next year is to "have customized connections for every single federal partner."

"It's a smart business solution [and] a model for cross-agency teamwork," said Tim Young, associate administrator of e-government and information technology at the Office of Management and Budget, who stepped in for an ailing Karen Evans, the department's administrator.

In a statement read by Labor Chief Information Officer Patrick Pizzella, former OMB director and current Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, a Republican, praised GovBenefits as an "effective" use of technology that is "evolving into a true inter-governmental" site.

Pizzella said Daniels has "expressed his interest" in having Indiana become the first state to pilot Customized Connections on its Web site, though Daniels' press office did not immediately have any information on those plans. Meanwhile, the Social Security Administration likely will be the first federal agency to pilot the initiative, Pizzella said.

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Strategy trumps money on intelligence reform, says former governor

Chloe Albanesius — Tue, 29 Mar 2005 00:00:00 -0500

"Policymakers themselves need to have some overarching structure," Gilmore, who served as chairman of an anti-terrorism commission named after him, said here at the annual Government Convention on Emerging Technologies. The nation must make sure they are "not just throwing money willy-nilly at the issue. We have to have some strategic direction."

Part of the problem is that the philosophy of the Homeland Security Department has been to protect against vulnerabilities instead of threats, he said. Gilmore, a Republican, praised new Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff for vowing to change that structure. "I think it's a very positive development."

Cultural issues at the federal level also have prevented local security officials from getting critical information in a timely manner, Gilmore said. "Congressmen and women have automatic [security] clearances when they're elected," he said. "Governors don't get clearance, and yet they are the ones who command the resources to respond [to], and perhaps prevent," an attack.

"I can't think of any reason why a major police chief can't be cleared and get access to [classified information]," Gilmore added. "If you believe that he is somehow inferior to a staff person at the FBI, you're wrong."

Gilmore acknowledged that changing that reality will be difficult. But if agencies address such cultural issues and explain to lawmakers that change is necessary, "the law will follow," he said.

"I think the threat assessments are everything -- defining the intentions and capabilities of the enemy," he said. Gilmore pointed to rumors that terrorists were learning to be scuba divers. Without more detailed information about what these terrorists plan to do with their scuba-diving knowledge, he said, that information is useless. All officials "have a right to know the validity" of such information. "This is a big challenge."

Officials also need to have meaningful communication with the American people, Gilmore said. "If there is an explosion in this country, you can't let it undo the republic," he said. Citizens are going to have to learn to "roll with it."

Should such an explosion occur, the country is now able to "manage these problems technologically, [which] carries with it an entirely different and potentially transformational quality," Gilmore said.

He called on the private sector and Americans to "decide what kind of society we're building." He said officials and the private sector will need to review planning at the national level; homeland security in connection with state and local officials; specific programs like water control and port security; intelligence reform; and information management in Congress.

In a later session, Kevin Schied, a senior adviser on the federal commission designated to investigate the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, said the panel's recommendations were mostly addressed in the intelligence law enacted last year. "Perhaps not as elegantly as we might have wished," he added, "but that's part of the legislative process."

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FBI official, privacy advocate clash over PATRIOT Act

Chloe Albanesius — Tue, 22 Mar 2005 00:00:00 -0500

"We at the FBI do not want your secrets, unless of course you are a terrorist or a spy," Valerie Caproni, general counsel for the FBI, said at a conference sponsored by the American University National Security and Law Society.

Caproni downplayed the controversy surrounding the law, which has been criticized as giving the government too much investigatory and surveillance powers. The act simply "changed the standard that we have to meet" in order to conduct certain investigations, she said.

Section 215 of the law has "generated the most complaints ... from the ACLU to librarians," she said. That section allows federal agents to access information such as book orders and reading records at libraries in connection with international terrorism investigations.

"We don't like the fact that librarians are upset," Caproni said. "While their concerns are held very much in good faith, they are misplaced."

The only way the requests under the statute differ from regular grand-jury subpoenas is that recipients cannot tell anyone they have received the orders, she said. "It's not unreasonable ... in a national security investigation" to keep certain information a secret.

She acknowledged that "any time the government can gather information, there is some chance of [infringement]. But again, this is very minimal. The FBI almost never seeks library records. It would just be a very unusual thing for us to do."

Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, was unconvinced. "How many people here are terrorists or spies?" he asked meeting attendees, and no one responded. "How many people have flown on a commercial airliner in the past two years?" he asked, and a majority raised their hands.

"The FBI has obtained 257 million air travel records on American passengers on Northwest Airlines" since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, he said. "It seems to be among this small sample a lack of congruence among the number of self-admitted terrorists and the number of people's information that was turned over to the FBI."

Rotenberg said the PATRIOT Act created "a trump card" that allowed law enforcement to use Section 215 as a means to avoid pre-existing privacy laws.

Caproni noted that any investigation authorized under Section 215 must be approved by a judge, but Rotenberg said the "discretion of the judge to review the order [is] significantly diminished. Greater authority is given to investigators."

The next "enormous challenge" will be to establish "adequate means of oversight to balance new powers that have been given to the executive branch," Rotenberg said.

But Caproni insisted that, "We are not willy-nilly gathering personal data" on Americans.

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Officials criticize system for tracking foreign students

Chloe Albanesius — Thu, 17 Mar 2005 00:00:00 -0500

The Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), operated by the Homeland Security Department, was created as part of a 2001 anti-terrorism law known as the USA PATRIOT Act. It was initially plagued by technical mishaps but since has been improved, according to the department and the Government Accountability Office.

"Indications are that SEVIS performance has improved and continues to improve," Randolph Hite, director of GAO's information technology architecture and systems issues, said at the hearing of the House Education and the Workforce Select Education and 21st-Century Competitiveness subcommittees.

Hite criticized "residual help-desk problems," which can cause delays when students are attempting to obtain visas. He stopped short, however, of blaming SEVIS entirely for the declining number of international students.

That decline can partly be attributed to growing higher education competition abroad, said C.D. Mote, president of the University of Maryland. "U.S. schools have not been aggressive in pursuing international students" because the nation traditionally has dominated in graduate education. "That game has changed entirely and our country has not understood that completely," he said. "We have to be more effective in our competition."

"Those seeking to study in science and engineering [have faced] major delays in receiving their visas because of security clearances," said Dale Kildee of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the 21st-Century Competitiveness Subcommittee. "We have to redouble our efforts to process [visas] more quickly. The potential impact is huge" if students decide to study elsewhere.

The United States should preserve its flow of talented international students into the country while also maintaining adequate safeguards against potential terrorists, said subcommittee Chairman Howard (Buck) McKeon, R-Calif.

Victor Cerda, special counsel for immigration and customs enforcement at Homeland Security, said his department organized SEVIS "in a manner to meet that balance" between education opportunities and security. "By no means is this a done deal," he added. "We continue to work with the universities and the Department of State, but there's always room for improvement."

Homeland Security is particularly concerned about the "overall integrity of the information in SEVIS," Cerda said. As a result, the department is "working toward an overall data integrity strategy" and the student and exchange visitor program is "considering the establishment of a federal advisory committee specifically focused on performance," he said.

Mote echoed GAO's concern about personnel. University staff are not allowed to correct errors entered into SEVIS and must ask federal authorities before making changes.

"The correction can take months, and often students graduate before the 'fix' occurs," he said. "SEVIS should qualify a designated school official at each institution to correct technical errors and report the changes on a specific schedule."

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Intelligence chief faces difficult task, lawmaker says

Chloe Albanesius — Thu, 03 Mar 2005 00:00:00 -0500

"It's so important to have one boss" overseeing U.S. intelligence operations, Rep. C.A. (Dutch) Ruppersberger, D-Md., said at a summit sponsored by the Center for Homeland and Global Security.

President Bush last month nominated former U.N. Ambassador John Negroponte to become the first national intelligence director. Should Negroponte, who most recently served as the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, be confirmed, he would have a "tall order" to fill, Ruppersberger said. The congressman met Negroponte during a trip to Iraq and said he "seems like the type of person who can pull people together."

That diplomacy will come in handy when dealing with those who did not fully back the creation of the post, like the Defense Department and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Ruppersberger said. Negroponte is "going to have to stand up to Rumsfeld" in order to "break down stovepipes and connect the dots" of U.S. intelligence.

Ruppersberger praised Bush for eventually backing creation of the post, despite initial reluctance, and for giving the position budgetary authority. However, he criticized Bush for proposing to make a majority of his fiscal 2006 intelligence funding a supplemental part of the base budget.

"A supplemental is for unforeseen" obstacles, Ruppersberger said. "The war against al Qaeda is not unforeseen." Such a tactic would not allow government contractors to plan for the future if they are always waiting until the last minute for funding numbers, he said.

Ruppersberger also criticized the CIA, which was "correctly blamed for the intelligence failures that led to" the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, he said. The problem, however, dates to intelligence budget cuts that started with former President Carter and intelligence officials are just now "trying to play catch up." Ruppersberger also said "political interference" is a factor.

He called for a decrease in the backlog of security clearances. Of the 3.2 million people who currently have clearances, about 650,000 are from the private sector, while 420,000 clearances are currently on hold. "We need to demand results," he said, but a better question might be whether 3.2 million people really need clearances.

Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, a Texas Republican who is now a senior policy adviser for DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary, said the preservation of personal liberties is of the utmost importance when addressing intelligence.

He slammed the 2001 anti-terrorism law known as the USA PATRIOT Act as one of the more scary legislative processes he has known. "There's nothing more frightening than a legislative body in a panic," he said of Congress' hurried nature in clearing the bill. Technology sometimes gives the "opportunity to transgress against people's ... liberties," he said. He would be willing, however, to slightly risk security for the advancement of liberty and "our dignity."

"It's an exciting time for innovative thinkers," Armey said. He urged the private sector to develop technologies that "respect the privacies of the American public.

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Homeland Security allows access to restricted funds

Chloe Albanesius — Wed, 19 Jan 2005 00:00:00 -0500

"Money has been a constant point of contention and refrain and understandably so," Ridge said during the U.S. Conference of Mayors' winter meeting. "There's no disagreement that we need additional dollars to our state and local communities. The problem is that we have accumulated [between fiscal 2002 and fiscal 2004] about $4.6 billion that has yet to be distributed."

At issue is the 1990 Cash Management Act, which requires the federal government to reimburse localities for grant money spent rather than provide the money for projects in advance. Many cities and towns, however, have rules that say they cannot enter purchase orders unless they have the money.

Coming up with that kind of cash is "pretty difficult to do when you have a cash flow problem" at the local level, Ridge said.

As a result, a June report from the Homeland Security Department's Task Force on State and Local Homeland Security Funding recommended that recipients of fiscal 2005 homeland security funding be exempt from the restrictions of the Cash Management Act.

That recommendation will go into effect and "give the cities and states a year to break the maze of regulations and laws and ordinances" while they craft local regulations that will not conflict with the federal law, Ridge said. He encouraged the mayors to sit down with state legislators and city councils, look at the task force's report and "do whatever you need to do to break the logjam" created by the Cash Management Act.

In the meantime, the one-year break means "dollars will be streaming into communities much more quickly" than in previous years, Ridge said.

Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, said the current homeland security process is "not a good formula," but vowed to change it this year. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, "gets it and we're going ... to deal with that this year," said Voinovich, a senior member of the panel.

One community not enthused by its grant money situation is Washington, D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams voiced his concern Tuesday at the conference that the government is requiring the city to use its homeland security funds to cover some inauguration security costs.

Ridge, however, praised Williams for "doing an extra job [and] helping the federal government" during the inauguration. Williams' staff is part of the event's joint field office, which is a "terrific model where everyone is involved -- coordinating, sharing equipment and sharing people," Ridge said.

Meanwhile, with only days left in his term as secretary, Ridge touted his department's information sharing network. "We are still not to the point where we've got that flow that's as consistent as it needs to be, but [we've made definite progress] in a short period of time."

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Ridge outlines security efforts for Bush's inauguration ceremony

Chloe Albanesius — Tue, 11 Jan 2005 00:00:00 -0500

Anyone who attempts to disrupt the inauguration next week "will be repelled by multiple levels of security," Ridge said during a press conference on the National Mall. Security for the event is at its highest level, he said, and the department will "leave nothing to chance."

Homeland Security agencies such as the Secret Service, Transportation Security Administration, Coast Guard and Federal Emergency Management Agency will be involved in the effort, Ridge said. He touted the agencies' cooperation in organizing the event. They have been able to "integrate capacities and abilities at all levels" to be "as prepared as possible," he said.

Law enforcement agencies will be exchanging video feeds, connecting with one another through wireless communication devices and monitoring 24-hour surveillance cameras placed throughout the city, Ridge said. Mobile command vehicles will coordinate additional communication across multiple law enforcement agencies. Meanwhile, portable X-ray equipment will be deployed to several sites, and the Coast Guard will patrol the nearby Potomac River, he said.

The Secret Service, which has "led the design of the security planning," has swept all venues for signs of foul play and has led multiple, inter-agency training sessions, Ridge said.

There is "very little intelligence" pointing to specific plans to disrupt the inauguration, Ridge said, but just because the "decibel level is down" does not mean the department is less vigilant. The inauguration "is the most visible manifestation of our democracy," so it is natural to think enemies might want to stop it, he added, but there is currently "no specific threat."

The color-coded national alert will not be raised for the inauguration, he said. The code has been at yellow, representing an elevated or significant risk of terrorism, since mid-November, according to Homeland Security's Web site.

When asked for his thoughts on the District of Columbia's aggravation about having to use its own money designated for homeland security to cover inaugural security costs, Ridge said only that a "request has been made of my department [to use] money for security measures."

Ridge called on private citizens to report any unusual activity they might witness during the event. Their vigilance is the "added level of security" that will improve safety efforts on Inauguration Day, he said.

Meanwhile, Ridge praised Bush's selection of U.S. Appeals Court Judge Michael Chertoff to succeed Ridge as Homeland Security secretary. "I know him by reputation," Ridge said, praising the judge's "great intellect" and "great energy."

Chertoff is "well-equipped by experience and background" for the job, Ridge said.

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Report calls for Homeland Security reorganization

Chloe Albanesius — Mon, 13 Dec 2004 00:00:00 -0500

"The organization is weighed down with bureaucratic layers, is rife with turf warfare and lacks a structure for strategic thinking and policymaking," David Heyman, director of the homeland security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said at a National Press Club briefing. Heyman paired with James Jay Carafano, senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, to produce the report.

The report recommends the creation of several new undersecretary positions at the department.

Specifically, Carafano called on Homeland Security to create an undersecretary of policy to provide "long-range thinking" and "programmatic analysis." The department currently lacks a "high-level policy officer with the staff, authority and gravitas to articulate and enforce policy guidance throughout and across the department," the report said.

Carafano also suggested that the current director for Homeland Security's international affairs office be converted to an assistant secretary position under the policy undersecretary.

He added that the lack of congressional oversight of the department is the greatest obstacle to the department's success. The Senate's plan to give the Governmental Affairs Committee some authority over the department but not its Coast Guard or Transportation Security Administration elements is "wholly inadequate," he said.

The House plan for a permanent Homeland Security Committee, by contrast, is a "terrific" idea and "spot on," Carafano said.

Efforts to bolster border security have "succeeded in some degree" by providing a "single, uniform face at the border," but more needs to be done, Heyman said.

He called for eliminating the post of undersecretary of border transportation and security, currently held by Asa Hutchinson, and urged Homeland Security to merge its functions on customs, border patrol and immigration and customs enforcement. Heyman also pushed for consolidating the US-VISIT technology for tracking immigrants into those merged elements.

"These are specific ideas to be considered by Congress and the executive branch," Heyman said. He hopes lawmakers will examine the findings and craft legislation to implement his suggestions "within the next six months."

To those who might suggest it is too early to reorganize Homeland Security, which was created from various existing government entities in 2003, Carafano said it is imperative that policymakers act before the agency becomes too "locked" to make any changes.

"We need to make changes now before the stakeholders become so ingrained" in the current system that it will take another terrorist attack or 40 years of hassling to make changes, he said.

Heyman agreed. "At this point, [the department] operates like an ad hoc conglomeration of startup companies," he said.

"We really need to embrace genuine reform," added John Hamre, the CEO of CSIS.

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Defense Department, privacy group spar over data request

Chloe Albanesius — Thu, 09 Dec 2004 00:00:00 -0500

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) in May requested information through the Freedom of Information Act from the Defense Intelligence Agency regarding its use of Verity K2 Enterprise, a program that allegedly mines for data via intelligence information and Internet searches in order to identify terrorists.

The Pentagon rejected EPIC's request, claiming the group did not sufficiently explain the urgency of receiving that specific information. EPIC subsequently filed suit in July in the hopes of gaining access to the material.

The two sides met in U.S. district court Thursday to hash out a schedule for the release of the material EPIC is seeking.

The Pentagon has not completed all the searches necessary to provide the data to EPIC, an attorney for the agency told Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly. While the total number of government documents is "more inches of documents than feet," some of those documents deal with classified foreign intelligence and will take longer to decipher, according to the department.

Defense said it would prefer that the case be regarded as normal litigation rather than a FOIA case, a notion promptly rejected by EPIC General Counsel David Sobel. "For better or worse, this is a FOIA case," he said. Narrowing the scope of the case is not necessary because EPIC does not consider its request to be broad, he said. "It's not a large universe of material," Sobel added.

It would take Defense at least four months to complete any request for the data EPIC is seeking, the department said.

That timeframe is "extremely generous to the agency," Sobel said. "I at least ask for a consideration of rolling releases so we wouldn't have to wait almost a year" for these documents.

Kollar-Kotelly refused to leave the issue "open ended" and demanded that the two sides decide on a framework to either submit a release schedule or a formal request for a delay.

Defense now has until Dec. 28 to submit a schedule or a request for a stay, and EPIC has until Jan. 10 to respond. A final response from Defense is due by Jan. 24.

Kollar-Kotelly urged Defense to inform her by Dec. 28 when it thinks it can provide her with a "Vaughn index," which essentially notes which records it plans to withhold from the public.

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Omnibus bill orders agencies to appoint chief privacy officers

Chloe Albanesius — Mon, 06 Dec 2004 00:00:00 -0500

The language, which would prohibit federal agencies from monitoring individuals' Internet use, is included in the part of the bill, H.R. 4818, that would fund the Transportation and Treasury departments. That section also would fund independent agencies and general government appropriations.

The government cannot collect information about Web users unless that information does not identify specific people or those people give their permission. Exceptions would be made for law enforcement requests and "system security" incidents required to protect agency networks.

The bill also would require that each government entity hire chief privacy officers to oversee system privacy, ensure that any data collection is legal and secure, and evaluate the disclosure of personal information by the government. To ensure that agencies are complying with the provisions, the measure would require each agency's inspector general to hire consultants to evaluate the agencies' use of identifiable information and its data-protection procedures.

The measure also would provide funding to modernize information technology infrastructure. The Treasury Department could spend a maximum of $3 million on its IT modernization plan, while the Internal Revenue Service would get $205 million to acquire IT systems, pending the House and Senate Appropriations committees' approval.

The Executive Office of the President, meanwhile, would receive about $12 million for IT modernization, but $4 million would not be released until the office submits a plan that is approved by White House Office of Management and Budget, Government Accountability Office and appropriations committees.

Lawmakers also appropriated $42 million for the Counterdrug Technology Assessment Center, $24 million of which would be used to continue the program that transfers technologies developed with federal funds to state and local communities.

Meanwhile, the Election Assistance Commission would receive $14 million to implement the 2002 election overhaul, which included language on e-voting. Of that sum, $2.8 million would go to the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Overall, the Transportation and Treasury departments' share of the spending bill includes some $59 million for advanced technology development, an increase over the $42 million suggested by the House and $57 million offered by the Senate. The bill calls for $1.5 million worth of appliance-based computer-security technology, $400,000 for technology frameworks and $500,000 for certificate-based Internet security. The bill also calls on the departments not to exceed $2.5 million on their e-government initiatives.

The bill would allocate $1.5 million for vertical flight technology, $4 million for "phased array" radar technology and $3 million for anti-jamming technology for global positioning systems. It also would appropriate $8 million for research and technology program support, including $250,000 for the Transportation Research Center at the Georgia Institute of Technology and $1.5 million for the Oklahoma Transportation Center.

The bill also would waive "Buy America" provisions requiring federal IT purchases to include U.S.-made content, and it would allow the Federal Railroad Administration to reimburse employees for home Internet connections.

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Park Service systems face cuts to bolster core operations

Chloe Albanesius — Mon, 29 Nov 2004 00:00:00 -0500

The assertion comes nearly five months after the House passed a spending bill, H.R. 4568, for the Interior Department and related agencies that called for more than $1 million in cuts to e-government spending.

Recent budgets "have not sufficiently addressed growing shortfalls in core operating programs at the parks," negotiators wrote in the conference report to the omnibus bill, which now includes Interior funding. "The budget of the National Park Service (NPS) cannot continue to be limited to a few parks and purposes while core visitor-service requirements are going unmet nationwide."

The omnibus bill, however, would provide $500,000 more than the House bill for the certification and accreditation of Interior's overall information technology systems. The measure also would allocate $300,000 more to Interior for accessible data transfer, another $50,000 for the enterprise services network and $1 million more for a category dubbed "regulation and technology."

The compromise would decrease by $1 million the information resources technology for the department's central office operations.

It also would direct the Office of Surface Mining to reprogram e-government funds earmarked for disaster management and SAFECOM to help fund fixed costs. SAFECOM is the program to coordinate wireless communications safety programs for the government.

The bill further would appropriate $1.7 billion for the general management, operation and maintenance of NPS operations. Of that amount, some $96 million would be reserved for maintenance and assessment projects, including the automated facility-management software system. The ongoing project provides detailed information on park assets and allows the department to monitor and prioritize maintenance needs.

Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., spearheaded a campaign to include a permit-tracking system in the bill. The move came after the Bureau of Land Management increased the fee for obtaining a mining claim on federal land from $100 to $125. The bill would drop that fee back to $100 until the government can develop a system to track permits given to people who want to take minerals from public lands.

The measure also includes funding for several state-based technology programs, including: $600,000 for the Washington state rural technology initiative; $300,000 for a technology transfer program in Coweeta, N.C.; an increase of $500,000 over the House's funding proposal for the Rocky Mountain Technology Foundation; and an increase of $600,000 over the Senate's spending plan for the Offshore Technology Research Center in Texas.

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Official says more work is needed on port, cargo security

Chloe Albanesius — Tue, 16 Nov 2004 00:00:00 -0500

"It's a puzzle we're building," Homeland Security Deputy Secretary James Loy said at a maritime and port security conference sponsored by Defense Today. The department is "just beginning to crack the surface" of knowing the enemy, and it is not something that will happen overnight.

Academia and the private sector will assist in that quest, he said. The private sector owns 80 percent of U.S. critical infrastructure, Loy noted.

Homeland Security soon will establish a fifth center of excellence that will focus on social services like bioterrorism or nuclear information flow, he said. The centers are partnerships with universities that focus on multi-disciplinary research key to homeland security.

A single response plan to port and cargo security also is critical, Loy said, but the department cannot develop one without the help of those who encounter security issues every day.

Loy was critical of state lawmakers addressing the issue. "The last thing we need is 50 different regimes" that will only result in confusion, he said. "Singularity of game plan" should be the ultimate goal, he added.

The quick reorganization of resources after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks confounded the issue, Loy said. Before those attacks, some 3 percent of the budget went to homeland and port security, and within 48 hours of the attacks, that number jumped to 57 percent, he said.

The solution is to "be about the business of establishing a core template of intent for the federal system to standardize across the board [and] to leave room for unique challenges," Loy said. He pointed to Florida's seaport security committee as a good example of "pushing the envelope."

Loy acknowledged that there is "no doubt our country can be, on its very best days, very impulsive" with its spending. The country has a history of reacting to a tragedy with a "relatively emotional piece of legislation" that later takes three to five years to sort out, he said. He pointed to the 2001 anti-terrorism law known as the USA PATRIOT Act as one example of legislation that we "will be sorting through, not only for resources, over the next few years."

Before approving such legislation, "it's an imperative that we truly understand the psychological nature of the enemy," he said.

To aid in that task, the department in December will host a summit to more adequately articulate a national cargo security strategy, Loy said. He said he has never backed the notion that the department's programs are the "ultimate answer" to security, and he wants to hear additional ideas. "We've done an awful lot of good work, [but it's] incomplete," he said.

Some critics note that despite all the steps taken to improve port and cargo security since the 2001 attacks, only 5 percent of cargo containers entering U.S. ports are inspected.

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Federal officials brief business leaders on IT opportunities

Chloe Albanesius — Thu, 21 Oct 2004 00:00:00 -0400

Dan McLaughlin, acting director of the Information Technology Acquisition Center (ITAC) at the Homeland Security Department, met with industry insiders for the first time to talk about public-sector opportunities within ITAC. The program's mission is to streamline information technology across the agency in "an efficient and effective manner," he said at INPUT's FedFocus conference on government technology.

McLaughlin has yet to develop any concrete plans for ITAC because he wants to "start the process with industry." He has conducted a "tremendous amount of market research" but is currently in a "transition period" until the center receives more input from experts.

In the next few weeks, McLaughlin expects to advertise open positions for ITAC staff before moving ahead with plans to develop a governance structure, craft acquisition plans for services and command efforts, and distribute proposal documents for industry. He also has been working with other Homeland Security officials, like Chief Information Officer Steve Cooper, to coordinate technology needs.

Also at the conference, Mike Palensky, chief of the Census Bureau's acquisition division, highlighted his agency's planning process for the 2010 census.

For the 2000 census, he said, officials mailed "130 million households worth of mail, [so] we had 115 stacks of paper as tall as the Sears Tower that we had to image and process ... within 90 days. That's why we're here years in advance of 2010 ... trying to award our contract earlier."

"A big section of this contract [to help process census forms] is just building and operating the system," Palensky said. "For the first time in 2010, we're looking at different nodes, like telephone and Internet responses. There are a lot more security issues around everything we do at Census since" the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The agency released draft proposals for certain contracts in August and expects to release a second draft proposal Nov. 1, before the formal request for proposals is made available in February 2004, Palensky said. Contracts will be awarded in October 2005.

"With a major acquisition like this ... it normally takes us about six months" to complete, he said. That is why the bureau is asking industry to look at solutions that will "get us to 2010."

Palensky stressed that when awarding contracts, it is "not the company size but the people you're bringing forward to work on our program."

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Senate aide predicts fractured Homeland Security oversight

Chloe Albanesius — Tue, 19 Oct 2004 00:00:00 -0400

Bill Hoagland, the director of budget and appropriations for Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said that if negotiations between the House and the Senate on legislation designed to overhaul the intelligence community are completed, it is not likely to seriously affect the current overlapping jurisdictions on security issues in the legislative branch.

Hoagland spoke at a briefing on security financing sponsored by Equity International.

Negotiators on a Senate plan for security jurisdiction have established that the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee will oversee much of Homeland Security. But the Transportation Security Administration and Coast Guard will remain within the jurisdiction of the Commerce Committee, and the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Georgia and Secret Service will be handled by the Judiciary Committee, Hoagland said.

The House established a special Homeland Security Committee. It is set to go out of business at the end of the 108th Congress, but House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., has indicated support for making the panel permanent.

Adding to the problem of oversight is the increasingly political nature of homeland security funding, Hoagland said. "Immediately after [the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks], there was a sense of bipartisanship," he said. But with the significant increase in resources for interested parties, "it should be obvious to all that homeland security has become more politically charged."

"Both sides have used the talk of danger in an effort to win votes," he said. "I'm not totally naive to the politics of this town and, more importantly, the separation of power. [But] this politicalization of homeland security cannot but add to the anxiety to the American public about their safety."

Hoagland also said it is "not my responsibility to question" allocations for Homeland Security in fiscal 2005. But he did note that "despite the tremendous resources that have been devoted [to homeland security], it is clear that our borders remain porous" and that lawmakers need to pay attention to them as closely as they pay attention to the nation's airport gates.

Andrew Maner, the chief financial officer for the department, said Congress was "very generous" with its funding for airport-screening technology, but he said the department is working to reduce its immigration backlog, a process that likely will continue for several more budget cycles.

The department is "very well-funded, [so] it is up to us to spend this money wisely," Maner said. He acknowledged, when questioned, that there are "certainly things we can do to improve."

Financial management is "a journey," he said, so Homeland Security is taking the criticism it received in its first year and attempting to improve. Those improvements include enhancing the process for allocating funding for state and local emergency responders, a process that is "never fast enough," he said.

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Expert pans quality of government's biometric ID system

Chloe Albanesius — Thu, 30 Sep 2004 00:00:00 -0400

"On the surface, biometric identification [from] the US-VISIT program appears to be highly effective," Lawrence Wein, a professor of management science, said in prepared testimony for the House Homeland Security Infrastructure and Border Security Subcommittee. An examination of the details, however, shows "it is very difficult to accurately match poor-quality images."

"Our study stems from the belief that terrorist organizations can exploit this observation by choosing U.S.-bound terrorists that have either poor image quality ... or deliberately reduced image quality," Wein said.

He disputed the government's claim of 96 percent success in matching terrorists listed in the database. "The currently implemented strategy has only a 53 percent chance of detecting a terrorist during U.S. entry," he said.

His research team at Stanford, however, found that "a minor software modification that allows the watch-list rule to vary with image quality can increase detection from 53 percent to 73 percent."

Wein also found that using a system that scans more than two index fingers "achieves a 95-percent detection probability." He acknowledged that switching to such a system would be costly but said "there is no excuse for a $10 billion program to settle for performance below this level."

"There is a serious but reparable vulnerability," he said. "In light of the meticulous planning that went into the" Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, it is likely the future terrorists will attempt to exploit U.S. government security systems.

"One of the concerns I have is making sure that there is a dedicated focus to ensure" that terrorists do not slip past security, said subcommittee Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich. "It is unclear to me how well all of these resources are utilized and coordinated." Camp called for a multi-faceted approach that does not spread the resources of the department too thin.

Ranking Democrat Loretta Sanchez of California accused federal authorities of employing an "inconsistent strategy." Despite claims of improvements, she said, "the facts don't always match up to these claims." She cited the placement of Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., on the "no-fly" list of potential terrorists.

"We are reviewing how travel documents are produced and reviewed so that we can better detect altered and counterfeit documents ... and exploring ways to share data with our counterparts that can help identify and thwart terrorists," said C. Stewart Verdery, assistant secretary for border and transportation security at the Homeland Security Department.

Verdery said the department has "successfully integrated" databases from various agencies for US-VISIT.

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GSA wins qualified praise for progress on new telecom contract

Chloe Albanesius — Wed, 15 Sep 2004 00:00:00 -0400

GSA's Federal Technology Service is responsible for ensuring that agencies have access to required telecom services. In 1998, the agency awarded a government-wide contract for long-distance service to Sprint and another in 1999 to MCI -- a venture known collectively as FTS 2001. The contracts are set to expire in December 2006 and January 2007.

The transition from FTS 2000 to FTS 2001 was plagued by delays. As a result, industry and government officials have been closely watching GSA as it prepares to open the contracts to competition as the end of FTS 2001 nears.

The next phase, known as Networx, will be divided into a contract for nationwide telecom companies, dubbed Universal, and one known as Enterprise for companies with specialized services. The agency initially planned to offer Enterprise contracts nine months after awarding Universal contracts but decided on a simultaneous process after industry objections.

GSA is committed to a "very aggressive schedule" on Networx, FTS Commissioner Sandra Bates told the House Government Reform Committee. Officials will release preliminarily request proposals Nov. 1 and again on April 1, 2005, before the contracts are awarded in April 2006, she said.

GSA has "made significant improvements" to Networx, enabling it to be more "pro-competitive," said Jerry Hogge, senior vice president and general manager of government markets at Level 3 Communications. He recommended, however, that the agency specify a "minimum business commitment ... [to] facilitate agency decision-making post-award" and create "effective competition throughout the life of the program."

The agency also is not adequately considering future changes in technology, said Donald Scott, senior vice president for EDS government solutions.

"Networx should offer an even broader, richer set of services and solutions," he said. "There is compelling evidence that the information technology and telecommunications industries are converging and that traditional telecommunications will be largely acquired using commodity schedules or through integration into total service packages and solutions."

Shelley Murphy, president of federal markets at Verizon Communications, agreed. "Over time it is possible that consolidation will reduce the number of Networx awardees, thereby reducing the competition for services," she said. "The GSA's current approach omits a plan for adding new technologies as they become available and mandates the use of soon-to-be obsolete services throughout the 10-year term of the contract."

Murphy also urged GSA to re-evaluate its wireless strategy so that coverage requirements apply to 95 percent of the top 100 most populated markets.

Jerry Edgerton, senior vice president of government markets at MCI, which will continue to provide GSA with FTS2001 service until 2007, called for the government to "set clear limits on the number of Networx contract awards" and "place clear limits on the number and types of services that will be included in the federal supply schedule."

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Panel reviews integration of communications systems

Greta Wodele and Chloe Albanesius — Wed, 08 Sep 2004 00:00:00 -0400

"Our nation is heavily invested in an existing framework that is largely incompatible," SAFECOM Director David Boyd said in written testimony before the House Government Reform Subcommittee on Technology, Information Policy, Intergovernmental Relations and the Census. Despite the challenges, he said, SAFECOM has "accomplished a great deal in the short time [the department] has managed the program."

Those accomplishments include the RapidCom Initiative, which provides training to 10 urban areas in how to respond to emergency situations. The program is a "catalyst for these areas to begin to institutionalize routine training and exercises, governance meetings, standard operating procedures, and more frequent use of interoperable communications," Boyd said.

The road to interoperability is hampered, however, because "first responders" to emergencies lack standards to assess the nation's current wireless capabilities, according to the Government Accountability Office.

William Jenkins, director of homeland security and justice issues at GAO, said the fragmented federal grant structure for firefighters, police officers and other first responders does not support statewide plans to have the systems of emergency workers "talk" to each other. The structure of the grants does not require a long-term communications plan before grants are issued and contains only a one- or two-year performance period, he said.

"The federal and state governments lack a coordinated grant review process to ensure that funds allocated to local governments are used for communication projects that complement each other," he said. The federal government can provide the "leadership, long-term commitment and focus to help state and local governments" meet their communication goals.

SAFECOM expects to publish an architectural framework by the third quarter of fiscal 2005, Boyd said. It also closed a request for proposals period Tuesday for a means to develop an accurate assessment of the situation and expects to begin work no later than December, he said.

Officials also are working on federal coordination. SAFECOM developed a common grant guidance program, outlining grant eligibility and purpose, Boyd said.

John Muletta, chief of the FCC's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, noted that "some of the challenges involved in bringing interoperability to public-safety systems are outside the scope of the FCC's authority, [but] the commission continues to take a leadership role in trying to resolve these challenges."

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