Key Democrat Discounts Speedy Enactment of 9/11 Advice
In an interview with U.S. News, Rep. Bennie Thompson, the Democrat slated to become head of the House Homeland Security Committee in January, acknowledged that one of Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi's primary goals for the first 100 working hours of the Democratic Congress–enacting all of the recommendations issued by the bipartisan 9/11 commission–might be at least partially unworkable.
"I think that that can be the goal," Thompson said of the recommendations. "I think within the 100 hours, we'll have to just see what is doable and go with that."
He added, however, that "over the next two years, probably over the next year," he plans to "see that a majority of those vulnerabilities that we have in this country are addressed."
Among the many measures that Thompson thinks Democrats will be able to tackle in the immediate term: a bill to ensure that by 2007 part of the radio spectrum is reserved for first responders, a move that would make it easier for law enforcement officials in different jurisdictions to communicate during an emergency. Republicans had passed a bill that would do as much, but not until 2009; Thompson said speeding up the process is "expensive but wholly doable."
One of the more controversial recommendations–streamlining congressional oversight so as to limit the number of committees overseeing chunks of the Department of Homeland Security–might be sorted out quickly, Thompson said, "in a perfect world." The problem was clear this fall, when a port security measure that cleared the House was delayed for weeks in the Senate because three separate committees had to hash out the details.
"In the world we live in," Thompson said of the turf issues, "I think with leadership's help, whatever jurisdictional issues there are, we will work through."