Napolitano sails through confirmation hearing

Janet Napolitano completed her confirmation before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Thursday, drawing praise and vows of support from every member of the committee, including both Republican members. Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-) said that he will move to have Napolitano confirmed by the full Senate as soon as possible after President-elect Obama’s inauguration next week.

Executive order on lab biosecurity

President Bush issued an executive order last week establishing a working group to review biosecurity at U.S. labs. This comes on the heels of lab biosecurity concerns in the report from the Commission on the Prevention of WMD Proliferation and Terrorism released last month, and expectations of new legislation in this area by the senior members of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

DHS lessons learned from Mumbai attacks

DHS Under Secretary Charles Allen (DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis) testified Friday before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, discussing both the lessons DHS learned from the November terrorist attacks in Mumbai, and the information sharing efforts of DHS with regard to the attacks. See full post for highlights and links.

FEMA’s relationship to DHS drawing attention and debate

One of the big decisions President-elect Obama will face when his administration takes over DHS is whether to leave FEMA as a part of DHS, or remove it from DHS and make it a cabinet-level agency, as it was before DHS was formed. Members of Congress, stakeholders, and prominent organizations are taking sides on the issue, but it’s not clear yet what stancethe Obama administration will take.

Report: Commission on the Prevention of WMD Proliferation and Terrorism

The bi-partisan Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism released a long-awaited report on December 4th about the current state of the WMD threat against the U.S.. The report received fairly wide coverage in both the main-stream press and on the Internet. Summary of the report, recommendations, and reactions, and links to the full text of the report and other sources for more information and analysis.

Obama and McCain representatives on DHS and transition

From Government Security News:
Representatives of both presidential campaigns participated in an interesting seminar on the DHS transition program in Washington last Wednesday, hosted by Clark Kent Ervin, the director of the homeland security program at the nonprofit Aspen Institute and the former (and first) inspector general at DHS.
Rachana “Ruchi” Bhowmik, who covers the Senate Homeland [...]

Senate Committee questions progress of DHS nuclear programs

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee questions the progress and future of 2 DHS programs: Advanced Spectroscopic Portal monitors (ASP) and Cargo Automated Advanced Radiography System (CAARS).
Congress questions Homeland Security’s approach to nuclear detection
[Update: See also: GAO recommends more scrutiny of ASPs]