Page 3 - Intelligence Reform News Today

This moment is as crucial as the periods after World War I, World War II, and the Cold War, with global and generational consequences.

It is crucial that Congress focus on and prioritize DHS spending.

Rather than reviving the failed and unworkable approach of"comprehensive" immigration reform, Congress should pursue anincremental strategy based on enforcing existing laws, along with afew modest, common-sense legislative initiatives.

Given recent terrorist actions, such as the 2009 Fort Hood attack and the attempted Christmas Day bombing, the new guidelines are needed.

U.S. immigration laws are not broken, they are not enforced. Illegal immigrants impose a great cost to the U.S. Congress is long overdue in making sure the Fourteenth Amendment is correctlyinterpreted and that employment eligibility verification andemployers fines for immigration violations are enforced.

New Secretary for Homeland Security Janet Napolitano issued a directive requiring her staff to report to her by the end of the month on five top issues facing the Department of HomelandSecurity. While the secretary needs to get these answers from herstaff, she will have to work with Congress to make substantivechanges a reality.

With over 85 percent of U.S. critical infrastructure controlled bythe private sector, the federal government needs to (1) definereasonable actions for the private sector in reducingvulnerabilities in CI, (2) address terrorist-related liabilityissues, and (3) work to harmonize U.S. laws with laws of othercountries so that terrorists and other criminals cannot slipthrough legal gaps.

PASS ID would repeal REAL ID, stripping away the substantive provisions that are already making driver's license more secure, including a repeal of 9/11 commission identity verificationrecommendations, information sharing between states, and airport IDsecurity standards. Congress should preserve REAL ID, fund itadequately, and take steps to ensure its full implementation bymoving interested states into the program.

Congress should ensure that key counterterrorism provisions do not expire and are made permanent policy.

The Ukraine conflict has blown open the door on how open-source information — broadly defined as publicly and commercially available data — can be a