9/11 commissioners still see security oversights

No agreement on funding
The House and Senate have been unable this year to agree on a funding formula that distributes money based solely on risk, threats and vulnerability. King said the Senate’s proposal “is still living with a pork-barrel formula.” But Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins said in statement that her bipartisan plan “provides a meaningful baseline of funds to each state so that the nation as a whole can achieve essential levels of preparedness.”

Kean said information-sharing gaps among turf-conscious federal intelligence agencies continue to exist. He also chastised the Transportation Security Administration for failing to consolidate multiple databases of passenger information into a single “terror watch list” that would make it easier for airlines to screen for suspicious travelers.

Moreover, expanded governmental powers to seek out terror-related intelligence have not been adequately balanced by civil liberties protections or oversight, said former Democratic commissioner Richard Ben-Veniste. He said President Bush was “tardy in naming a civil liberties protection board, whose funding is anemic and which has not yet been met to get underway.”

A bright spot in the government’s performance is the creation of a national intelligence director to help coordinate all government terror information, Roemer said.

“Generally, the grades range all the way from A to F,” Kean said.

Still, “No parent would be happy with this report card,” said former Democratic commissioner Jamie Gorelick.

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