Entries for March 29, 2007

Congressional Quarterly is reporting that George Foresman, the current DHS Undersecretary for Preparedness will submit his resignation this evening to the Department of Homeland Security. (Note: Subscription required.) The news comes just two days before DHS must meet a Congressional mandate for a major reorganization of the department and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The bill, which Congress passed in response to Hurricane Katrina, took major chunks of DHS out of Foresman's Preparedness Directorate, including the office that oversees the handout of about $2 billion in grants to state and locals each year. Those divisions were given back to FEMA, which is beefed up by the bill.

U.S. News Associate Editor Angie C. Marek reported last November about tensions among DHS leaders over how best to handle the reorganization and Foresman's somewhat diminished role in the Department. The latest plan had him overseeing a new division that would include the cybersecurity office and US-VISIT, the department's program to gather biometrics from foreign visitors entering the United States.

Update: DHS just released a statement from Homeland Security Chief Chertoff confirming the resignation, which is not immediate.

News that administration officials are buying separate private E-mail accounts to avoid using the internal system, coupled with reports that aides have often used GOP E-mail accounts, is drawing heat from public interest groups. One, the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, claims the practice could be illegal.

According to CREW, the Presidential Records Act appears to require that internal documentation be kept and that it should be handled in official channels. The separate accounts are outside those channels.

From reporter Silla Brush:

Advocates for additional funds for recovery efforts along the Gulf Coast are optimistic that they'll get the money they've included in the emergency supplemental appropriations bill, despite President Bush's threatened veto. The roughly $120 billion supplemental bill that includes funds for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan also includes money for levee repair and funds to cover waivers under the Stafford Act, among other provisions.

Asked whether he was concerned that the additional funds would get hung up in the war debate, Rep. Charles Melancon, D-Louisiana, said, "This is the only train that was leaving the station...the only way we could get any money without pay-go rules applying." Democrats have pushed nine bills so far this year that address recovery efforts for Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

White House officials have been visiting quietly on Capitol Hill in recent weeks to try to hammer out a compromise on immigration reform that can earn the support of the majority of Republican senators. The White House stepped into the debate earlier this month when negotiations between Sens. John McCain and Edward Kennedy, longtime immigration leaders, collapsed; the two senators were trying to draft a new immigration-reform bill that would be used to kick off debate on the issue this year.

U.S. News reporter Angie C. Marek has previously reported that Sen. Arlen Specter, among others, felt sidelined by the McCain-Kennedy negotiations and that progress on drafting a bill is being made much more quickly in the House.

This comes to us from U.S. News Editorial Assistant Amy Golod:

Children who spend at least 10 hours a week in day care are more likely to be troublemakers at school even through sixth grade, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development announced in a study this week.

But the reliance of American couples on child care is not set to decrease, so what's to be done about this matter isn't so simple. The Department of Labor projects the rate of enrollment for children under 5 in day care services to grow at a faster rate through 2014 than in years past.

Sen. John McCain, much more so than presidential rivals Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney, is taking heat for his support of the troop "surge" in Iraq, reports U.S. News Chief White House Correspondent Kenneth T. Walsh. McCain, for example, received widespread coverage when he blasted congressional Democrats this week for trying to pass legislation setting a date for withdrawal. (McCain condemned a measure -- approved on a 50-48 test vote in the Senate -- to include a spring 2008 timetable for bringing American troops home.)

The war has been "badly mismanaged but there are signs of progress everywhere," he said. "The consequences of failure are catastrophic because if we come home, bin Laden and Zarqawi, they are going to follow us."

No activity by Democratic hopefuls on the campaign trail today.

Republicans:

• Sam Brownback is in Charleston, S.C.
• Rudy Giuliani is in Oklahoma City, OK.
• John McCain attends two private fundraising events in Richmond, Va. and McLean, Va.
• Mitt Romney attends a luncheon in Greenville, S.C.

From the U.S. News Political Bulletin: McCain nearly switched parties in 2001.