From: *Travis* Date: Tue, Sep 23, 2008 Subject: The future of homeland security
http://www.gsnmagazine.com/cms/features/news-analysis/1038.html The future of homeland security By Louis Chunovic, Senior Editor Published September 22nd, 2008 [image: Nuke Plant] The future of homeland security – the concept rather than the huge government agency – was on the mind of DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff when he spoke recently at the Brookings Institution, the well-known Washington think tank. And while it was billed as one of a series of speeches marking DHS's fifth anniversary, focusing on the vulnerabilities of the nation's critical infrastructure, it had the feeling both of a valedictory and a defense of the Bush Administration's free market oriented guiding philosophy. Chertoff characterized "two very different views" of how to protect crucial national infrastructure. One he called the "government-centric model…Under this view, homeland security is essentially a government function in all respects." Not surprisingly, Chertoff rejected this approach, saying the "approach we take is not this 20th century command-and-control approach. It's rather a 21st century partnership approach." That view "involves business input into how to design a system to reduce vulnerability, and…relies upon business to do a great deal of the security checking itself." According to Chertoff, the partnership model "also acknowledges the reality that it's simply impossible -- and impossibly expensive -- for the government to handle 100 percent of Homeland Security preparedness, prevention, response, and recovery responsibilities in the 21st century." In Chertoff's view, when it comes to infrastructure vulnerabilities, it is government's job to "tier" the risk, as it did with companies that work with dangerous chemicals. "Based upon the degree of risk, we directed companies to achieve certain performance outcomes," he said. It is also government's job to make sure companies comply with DHS's performance metrics. "They had to complete security vulnerability assessments if they were in a high risk category," he said, "and they had to submit them to us, they had to develop site security plans, and they had to implement risk-based measures that will meet the standards." The benefit of this approach, according to Chertoff, is that it allowed the companies themselves to "decide the right way and the most cost-effective way to achieve the result." And if they did not cooperate, or failed to follow through, DHS "put a little bit of stick into these regulations," Chertoff said, "including fines of up to $25,000 a day." Regarding the damage done by natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina, which was widely regarded as largely preventable, Chertoff did acknowledge "resistance" by politicians and others to "long term investments." 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