DEPT. OF HOMELAND SECURITY ORGANIZATION PLAN SETS AGGRESSIVE TIMETABLE
There are several positions in Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) that White House hopes to fill in Jan., including many of interest to telecom community. Some, such as Tom Ridge as DHS secy., will require Senate confirmation, but it isn’t expected that any of nominations will encounter difficulty in GOP Senate, particularly with Democrats wary of being accused of delaying development of new agency. White House late Mon. released 32-page reorganization plan for DHS. Under Homeland Security Act the White House had 60 days to release plan following the signing of Act, but instead took mere hours.
Act specifies transfers of multiple agencies to DHS on Jan. 24, and White House indicated desire by that date to have found nominees for number of key positions under Ridge. Two requiring Senate confirmation would be Undersecy. for Information Analysis & Infrastructure Protection and Undersecy. for Science & Technology. Under former will be 2 asst. secys., one for information analysis and one for infrastructure protection. Those won’t require Senate confirmation, nor will Privacy Officer, Chief Information Officer or Dir. of Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency (HSARPA). HSARPA, modeled on DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), doesn’t yet exist, but White House said it hoped to do that as soon as possible after formation in Jan. White House also will be creating Directorate of Science & Technology under Office of National Laboratories.
It’s unclear which Senate committees will be reviewing Ridge and other appointees to DHS, as it’s new agency and congressional oversight lines haven’t been drawn yet. It’s jurisdiction of the Senate parliamentarian to decide which committee will get each DHS nomination initially, although Senate Majority Leader Lott (R-Miss.) has vowed to work with Senate Minority Leader Daschle (D-S.D.) to determine oversight of DHS, either under new committee or one or more existing ones. Various House and Senate committee chairmen have expressed reluctance at surrendering oversight of agencies that were under their committee before creation of DHS.
Meanwhile, Rep. Harman (D-Cal.) urged President Bush to appoint DHS privacy officer immediately as position doesn’t require Senate confirmation. She shares concern of civil liberties community that privacy rights could be harmed under Total Information Awareness (TIA) program under DARPA (CD Nov 26 p3) and wrote Bush that privacy officer could begin oversight of TIA immediately.
While Jan. is likely to see first nominations for DHS positions, Act calls for jobs to be filled before end of FY 2003, Sept. 30. Undersecy. for Science & Technology will test homeland security vulnerabilities and coordinate science research in U.S. Undersecy. for Information Analysis & Infrastructure Protection will oversee National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC), currently under FBI, as well as Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office (CIAO), now under Dept. of Commerce. Other agencies transferred to DHS and under new undersecy. will be National Communications System (NCS) and National Infrastructure Simulation & Analysis Center (NISAC).
Asst. Secy. for Information Analysis, among other duties, will work with chief information officer to establish “secure communications and information technology infrastructure, including data mining and other advanced analytical tools” as part of war on terror. Reorganization stipulates that such data analysis will be compatible with databases at other federal agencies but also will “treat information in such databases in a manner that complies with applicable federal law on privacy.”
Asst. Secy. for Infrastructure Protection will perform assessments “to determine the risks posed by particular types of terrorist attacks within the United States” while developing “a comprehensive national plan for securing the key resources and critical infrastructure of the United States,” including “information technology and telecommunications systems (including satellites)… and the physical and technological assets that support such systems.”
Beginning in March several agencies will be transferred to DHS, including CIAO, NCS and NISAC. Reorganization plan confirmed that Computer Investigations & Operations Section (CIOS) of NIPC wouldn’t be moved to DHS, although rest of NIPC would shift after March 1. That was specified by Congress in Sec. 201(g)(1) of Homeland Security Act. Also after March, DHS will establish Homeland Security Science & Technology Advisory Committee.