|
House Adds to Homeland Security Authorization Bill |
|
|
|
|
by Mickey McCarter
|
|
Thursday, 19 June 2008 |
Measures order airport security iniatives, bolster DHS bombing office
The US House of Representatives Wednesday passed a flurry of homeland security legislation by voice vote, clearing bills that would set up new airport security initiatives and bolster a bombing prevention office, among others.
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) applauded passage of the bills, many of which originated in his committee.
"The passage of these bills is critical to increasing our nation's homeland security," Thompson said in a statement. "The broad range of these measures varies from aviation security to detection and prevention of nuclear bombs and IEDs [improvised explosive devices]. I look forward to working with the Senate to include these measures in a House-Senate Conference on the Department of Homeland Security [DHS] Authorization this year."
The approved airport security legislation included a bill to establish a new redress process for US air passengers who mistakenly show up on no-fly lists (HR 4179), a bill to require a study on the use of biometrics to enhance security measures applied to US airport workers (HR 5982), and a bill to prohibit any advance warning of undercover testing of US airport security screeners to eliminate any interference with such testing.
The Airports Council International-North America (ACI-NA) singled out the biometrics study bill for praise, noting it would require a report to Congress on the costs and feasibility of implementing biometric identifiers in airport worker security screening measures within 180 days of passage.
"This bill will help airports develop best practices for administering biometric credentials for airport workers," ACI-NA President Greg Principato said in a statement.
The bombing prevention bill (HR 4749), sponsored by Homeland Security Ranking Member Peter King (R-NY), would grant authority and funds to an existing DHS Office of Bombing Prevention, which currently resides within the DHS National Protection and Programs Directorate.
"We all know that terrorists want nothing more than to carry out another attack on American soil," King said in a statement. "IED attacks are one of the cheapest, easiest, and most popular tactics used by al Qaeda in Iraq and Afghanistan and we've seen them used in London, Madrid and Mumbai. This bill gives DHS the resources it needs to mediate the threat of home-made bombs being used in one of our nation's cities."
Other bills passed by the House included one that would direct a study of partnering the US Civil Air Patrol with DHS (HR 1333) and one that would increase efforts to establish an international and domestic nuclear forensics apparatus to identify the origins of nuclear and dirty bombs (HR 2631).
These bills become part of the House's homeland security authorization bill, so they would be considered in a conference committee with the Senate, where the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee has been working on its version of an authorization bill, due before the congressional summer recess.
|
Mickey McCarter |
| About the author: |
| eNewsletter Editor/Senior Washington Correspondent,
is a journalist with more than a decade of experience in reporting
on
military affairs and information technology.
|
| Read More >> | |
Columns 
