Chairman Thompson Bids Farewell to DepSec Jackson
In a letter to the outgoing Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security, Michael Jackson, House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson chose to focus on the low lights of Jackson’s tenure. Thompson’s letter is a response to Jackson’s October 19 letter highlighting the efforts to fill vacancies at DHS.
The response takes issue with Jackson’s positive spin on filling vacancies (“filled, selected, or formally advertised†to be exact). Thompson takes the opportunity to list a number of programs failing to meet expectations that may indicate a pretty clear agenda for the Dems to start critiquing the Repub’s homeland security record.
The programs identified in Chairman Thompson’s letter include:
• The Transportation Worker Identification Card program
• Secure Border Initiative and Project 28
• US-VISIT (biometric exit capability)
• National Infrastructure Protection Plan and the corresponding Sector-Specific Plans
• DHS Office of Health Affairs
• Surface Transportation Security (mass transit)
• FEMA (brain drain)
• Office of Emergency Communications
Of course, the Thompson letter could have highlighted some positive accomplishments by the Department. But the Chairman closes his missive with a reference to a recent hearing that the DepSec did not to attend. Thompson suggests that the hearing, “Holding the Department of Homeland Security Accountable for Security Gaps,†was a missed opportunity for Jackson to defend the Department’s record. With a hearing title like that, I suppose its no surprise the DepSec had somewhere else to be.