Hearings All Around, But Is Anyone Really Listening - July 8, 2002 Vol. 3 No. 14

July 8, 2002 Vol. 3 No. 14:

Published: 07/08/2002

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Hearings All Around, But Is Anyone Really Listening

Hearings continue in both the House and Senate on the Administration’s Homeland Security proposal. Since introducing the President’s proposal to create a cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge, Director of Homeland Security, has testified almost nonstop before numerous congressional committees. Yet even with these many hearings on the biggest bureaucratic reshuffling in decades the President’s bill seems to have avoided serious criticism from Congress.

Numerous public interest groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, Natural Resources Defense Council, Greenpeace, National Environmental Trust, U.S. Public Interest Group, Environmental Defense and OMB Watch have raised strong concerns about the bill. However, these concerns seemed to have gained little attention in Congress. The concerns include the proposal for a broad new exemption from the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) as well as the limits placed on citizen input, protections stripped from whistleblowers, and possible threats to personal privacy.

There are two congressional hearings scheduled this week where some of these issues may be raised. The Senate Environment and Public Works committee will hold a hearing on Wednesday, July 10, to examine the President's proposal to establish the Department of Homeland Security. In the House, the Energy and Commerce’s subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations will hold a hearing on Tuesday, July 9, focusing on the research and development and critical infrastructure activities proposed for transfer to the new Department. The subcommittee reports that portions of the hearing may be closed to the public.

The witness lists for these hearings have not yet been finalized. However, it is rumored that Ridge will again testify on the President’s proposal at the Senate Environment and Public Works hearing. For the House Energy and Commerce hearing it is reported that Jeremiah Baumann of the U.S. Public Interest Group and David Sobel of the Electronic Privacy Information Center will both testify on the inherent problems associated with creating a new exemption to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in an effort to protect information on critical infrastructure.