How should the Coast Guard transform to meet the missions of a post-9/11 environment? At a recent Heritage Foundation lecture, Admiral Thomas H. Collins, Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, gavean overview of how the Coast Guard plans to meet the current andfuture challenges of the post-9/11 world and the Coast Guard's manymaritime domain responsibilities, from homeland security toprotecting natural resources.
Highways, bridges, power plants, and cyber networks are all part of the national infrastructure which is essential for the daily functioning of American society. The Department of Homeland Security carries the prime responsibility for protecting "critical infrastructure" from terrorist attacks and natural disasters. The problem currently plaguing the federal government efforts to implement a unified protection plan for the country is that, when it comes to determining which infrastructures are truly critical and which are important but not always essential, chaos reigns. For its part, Congress has at least 86 committees and subcommittees that oversee the Department of Homeland Security, providing for a complex and often burdensome system that impedes successful policy implementation. Three national security experts provide a guide for Congress with which to navigate the country's infrastructure priorities.