Members of House Select Committee on Homeland Security
The following members of the U.S. House of Representatives have been appointed to serve on the Select Committee on Homeland Security: Armey - Chair (R-TX), DeLay (R-TX), Watts (R-OK), Pryce (R-OH), Portman (R-OH), Pelosi (D-CA), Frost (D-TX), Menendez (D-NJ), and DeLauro (D-CT).
GAO Testimony re Homeland Security Design and Implementation Issues
The General Accounting Office released testimony that it delivered before the House Select Committee on Homeland Security. The testimony, entitled Homeland Security: Critical Design and Implementation Issues considered, among other things, challenges presented by the missions of agencies to be transferred to the new Department that are unrelated to homeland security. Specifically cited were the maritime safety and drug interdiction roles of the Coast Guard and collection of commercial tariffs by the Customs Service. The major question raised in this regard was whether those missions will receive adequate funding, attention, visibility, and support when subsumed into a department that will be under tremendous pressure to succeed in its primary mission. Source: HK Law
Government Reform Committee Votes to Keep Department of Homeland Security Intact
The Committee on Government Reform, chaired by Representative Dan Burton (R-IN), today voted to include the Coast Guard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and the U.S. Secret Service as part of H.R. 5005, the Homeland Security Act of 2002. “The decision to retain all four of these entities is critical to the core mission and overall success of this new Department,” said Burton. The determination to keep these critical components intact comes on the heels of votes in other Committees today to remove all or portions of the Coast Guard, FEMA, INS, and the Secret Service from the President’s original proposal.
