The Secretary of Homeland Security has identified many systemicshortfalls that have retarded the development of a more effectivenational response system. Congress should support his proposals tofix the problem and consider reforming the grant allocationprocess, regional preparedness, and the Federal EmergencyManagement Agency's response mission to strengthen the Department'scapacity to deal with deadly disasters.
When properly designed and combined with process, policy, and oversight, technology can provide a reasonable balance between security and privacy. The greatest policy challenge is finding themost effective uses of the specific data protection technology-bothfor liberty and security-not in labeling the collection ofinformation as evil.
The Defense Department must restructure officer education toemphasize a broad range of education opportunities. The attributemost needed by military officers is the critical thinking skillsthat come from a graduate education program. This may be the mostimportant contribution that the Defense Department can make totransforming the military.
The clock is ticking. In the wake of the terrorist attacks onWashington and New York in September 2001, Congress passed the USA Patriot Act. Some of the provisions in the act provided additionalauthorities for the sharing of information between law enforcementand intelligence agencies and granted additional powers to fightterrorism, mostly law enforcement tools that had already been usedto fight other serious crimes.