New U.S. House Homeland Security Chairman Discusses Agenda
By Andrew Cochran
The leadership in the U.S. Congress changed hands this month, and the new chairman of the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee, laid out his legislative agenda in comments today at a forum. With respect to the counterterrorism arena, Rep. Bennie Thompson pledged to pursue mass transit, rail, and bus security measures; to double the size of the Border Patrol; and to ensure improved intelligence and information sharing between the federal, local, and tribal governments. He also wants to "revisit" the fence on the Mexican border authorized by the Congress last year, and will probably get agreement from the Bush Administration, which has never really wanted a physical fence, as Michael Cutler posted about last year. Chairman Thompson is in a unique position, at the start of this Congress, to pursue energetic oversight of terrorism-related issues involving DHS and to push important and needed homeland security legislation through the House (see Victor Comras' post on potential priorities). His roadblock, as he expressed near the end of his discussion, will be the closely divided U.S. Senate.
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