House Approves Homeland Security Panel

The House Rules Committee has given the new Homeland Security Committee oversight on most of the Department of Homeland Security’s activities.

In an article on the Government Computer News website, writer Wilson P. Dizard III says the new committee will have authority over most DHS activities, except for the areas of immigration policy, non-border enforcement and customs revenue.

"The new committee will permit the House to give the Department of Homeland Security the same legislative support and dedicated oversight that the Committee on Armed Services provides to the Department of Defense," the panel’s presumptive new chairman, Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Calif.), said in a statement.

Dizard says Cox, the 9/11 Commission and many observers in the policy community had pressed the House leadership to concentrate DHS oversight in a single committee. However, Dizard says action fell short of the 9/11 Commission’s recommendation for a more comprehensive shakeup that also would have given the new committee powers over the FBI as well as all aspects of intelligence and immigration.

To read the full article, click here: http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/31449-1.html