Today's Top Stories
1. Coast Guard fleet operational hours unattainable
2. Baker: DHS should borrow cyber experts from NSA
3. DHS to meet with Kansas officials on NBAF
4. Signs of improvement for DHS acquisitions
5. OIG: Presidential security not compromised by Secret Service prostitute cavort  Follow @fiercegov on Twitter
Also Noted: Iranian cult is no longer officially a terrorist group; Flight attendant's gun goes off at Philadelphia airport TSA checkpoint; and much more... More News From the FierceGovernment Network:
1. Domestic UAVs spark privacy concerns
2. Cybersecurity executive order nearly complete, Napolitano says
3. Federal building security systems still wanting
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Today's Top News 1. Coast Guard fleet operational hours unattainable
A Coast Guard official acknowledged Sept. 20 its aging legacy fleet isn't operational for all the hours the service says are necessary to implement its statutory missions, but said the service won't revise downward the operational hours target. The targets are "what the nation should expect out of those ships," said Rear Adm. Ronald Rábago, assistant commandant for engineering and logistics, while before the House Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee on Coast Guard and maritime transportation. The Government Accountability Office found in a July report that ships in the legacy fleet were able to achieve 180,202 operational hours during fiscal 2011, 23 percent less than the 222,740 hour target. Some vessels in some regions do make their targets, Rábago said. Operational commanders also use the targets as a way of allocating maintenance resources "to keep certain vessels in particular areas up to a higher level," Rábago added. During the hearing, Stephen Caldwell, Government Accountability Office director of homeland security and justice issues, said service and Homeland Security Department officials told GAO auditors lowering the targets would spark concern that the Coast Guard would be lowering expectation. But, "the exceptional output of some individual vessels is not a good reason, really, we feel, for holding to what are unrealistic and unachievable targets," he said. Subcommittee ranking member Rick Larsen (D-Wash.) said by keeping the targets high, "it looks like you're trying to paper over a problem, when it's pretty clear we got plenty of paper that tells us there's a problem." "Right now we're keeping the operational targets where they are," responded Rábago. On a separate subject, Rábago said the Coast Guard doesn't anticipate maintaining new ships entering service as part of the ongoing realization effort to be maintained according to American Bureau of Shipping in-class standards. The Coast Guard tried doing so with some ships in the legacy fleet, but "we didn't get the reliability or additional value out of it for the expenditure of funds and also for the hours and the people that were involved," he said. For more:
- go to the hearing webpage (prepared testimonies and webcast available) Related Articles:
Coast Guard operational capacity deteriorating
Coast Guard recapitalization falls short, says fleet mix analysis
Papp: The Coast Guard can't lease all its icebreakers Read more about: American Bureau of Shipping, Coast Guard
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2. Baker: DHS should borrow cyber experts from NSA
To build its own cybersecurity expertise, the Homeland Security Department should bring on detailees from the National Security Agency, said Stewart Baker, a former official of both, on Sept. 20. Baker, who has been assistant secretary for policy at DHS and general counsel at NSA, spoke at a House Homeland Security Committee hearing. Detailees would operate under the limits of DHS's authority, but they would bring technical expertise that DHS lacks. Cybersecurity experts are in high demand in the private sector and difficult for DHS to hire, Baker added. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said Congress might be more likely to expand DHS's cybersecurity authority if the department had more technical expertise. Baker added that although every agency has to deal with some turnover among cybersecurity personnel, NSA has retained more than DHS. That's partly because NSA expects its employees to stay at the agency for decades, he said. Until it can build that kind of culture, "DHS needs to be borrowing personnel and capability from NSA, bringing them over, making them part of the career progression within NSA," Baker said. He gave DHS two grades on cybersecurity--"a B-plus for defending its turf but a D-plus for actually making us safer." Baker also offered support for an executive order on cybersecurity until Congress passes legislation on the issue. For more:
- go to the hearing webpage (prepared testimonies and webcast available) Related Articles:
Cybersecurity executive order nearly complete, Napolitano says
Cybersecurity bill won't advance in Senate
NIST calls for explicit cybersecurity risk methodologies
China and U.S. discuss cybersecurity via think tanks Read more about: Michael McCaul
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3. DHS to meet with Kansas officials on NBAF
 The Homeland Security Department will meet with Kansas state officials in the coming weeks to discuss moving forward with the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told a Sept. 19 Senate panel.
"It's necessary for the country, and I think it's time to fish or cut bait," Napolitano said during questioning by Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran (R) during a hearing of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. NBAF is envisioned as an Animal Biosafety Level 4 (the most dangerous possible) and Biosafety Level 3-ag (an agriculture-specific level intermediate between BSL3 and BSL4) laboratory for the study of foreign animal and zoonotic diseases and a replacement for the existing Plum Island Animal Disease Center, which is located off of Long Island, N.Y. Possible safety hazards associated with its proposed location of Manhattan, Kan., have generated controversy. Forty million dollars' worth of federal funding for the lab has been held up by a number of matters, including a requirement for the National Academy of Sciences to conduct an analysis of the NBAF plan. The academy's July report warned that the current NBAF proposal "has the potential for duplication of resources," and said the Agriculture and Homeland Security departments should create a distributed lab network with American public and private biocontainment labs that largely didn't exist when the federal government first proposed NBAF in 2006. Napolitano told the committee that an ABSL-4 lab is a national security necessity and that the Plum Island facility "is inadequate as a substitute." As a result, Kansas and the federal government should move forward with a land exchange for the facility and proceed with building the central utility plant, Napolitano said. But, "before we do so, I hope to host a meeting with the Kansas delegation--and perhaps the governor--to talk about out-year funding and cost shares and some of the things that Kansas has mentioned they are willing to contemplate," Napolitano said. Kansas officials have pushed for construction of the facility to begin, with Moran noting during the hearing that some contracts are set to soon expire. "We'd hate to have to rebid this," he added. For more:
- go to the hearing webpage (prepared testimonies and webcast available) Related Articles:
NBAF plans could be slimmed down, says NRC panel
NRC: NBAF risk greater than DHS says
DHS downgrades NBAF risk Read more about: anthrax, USDA
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4. Signs of improvement for DHS acquisitions
Silos in the acquisition process at the Homeland Security Department have begun to break down, the Government Accountability Office's John Hutton said Sept. 21. Hutton, director for acquisition and sourcing management at GAO, spoke at a hearing of the House Homeland Security subcommittee on oversight, investigations and management. He said DHS has made progress by establishing seven component acquisition executives, or CAEs. As a result, there's now a link between department-level governance and the components. DHS's office of program accountability and risk management works with CAEs to make sure the components are meeting the department's requirements. "The new CAE structure is key because it establishes a more logical line of authority between the department and our components," said Nick Nayak, chief procurement officer at DHS. He said the new structure also allows the components to implement DHS policies more uniformly. GAO has pinpointed DHS's failure to adhere to its own acquisition policy as a problem in recent years. DHS has also created eight acquisitions centers of excellence. The centers, staffed by subject matter experts, provide guidance and best practices. So far, the centers have engaged with 78 percent of major DHS acquisition programs. Nayak said he expects all programs to make use of the centers in fiscal 2013. Major programs are those expected to cost at least $300 million over their lifecycles, and GAO says many are expected to cost more than $1 billion. Hutton said it's too early to say whether the initiatives DHS has undertaken to improve acquisition management will bring sustained change. For more:
- go to the hearing webpage (prepared testimonies and webcast available) Related Articles:
S&T should be integral in DHS acquisitions, says House committee
How CBP wasted $69M on border fence steel
DHS cancels SBInet Read more about: House Homeland Security
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5. OIG: Presidential security not compromised by Secret Service prostitute cavort
 An inspector general investigation into the Secret Service Colombian prostitute scandal from earlier this year concluded that the activities of agents did not compromise the safety and security of the president or any sensitive information.
Homeland Security Acting Inspector General Charles Edwards said (.pdf) in a letter to Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee ranking member Susan Collins (R-Maine) that investigators identified 13 individuals "who were then employed" by the Secret Service who "had personal encounters with female Colombian nationals consistent with the misconduct reported around the time of advance activities for the President's visit to Cartagena." Of the 13, nine have resigned or are in the process of being fired, while four have returned to work. The scandal unfolded shortly before President Obama arrived in the Caribbean seaside town in April for a triennial Summit of the Americas meeting with other Western Hemisphere leaders. Before Obama's arrival, an advance team Secret Service agent refused to pay a prostitute on the morning after, causing her to call the police. Prostitution is permitted in Colombia within "tolerance zones." Three of the Colombian women left the rooms of Secret Service agents without asking for money, five asked for money and were paid, and four asked for money but were not paid--and the woman who sparked the scandal was not paid by her customer, but was paid by another Secret Service agent and left, the letter says. DHS investigators also found a hotel registry that suggests that a Defense Department employee within the White House Communications Agency may have also had intimate contact with foreign nationals. Another individual, "whose employment status was not verified," may have been affiliated with the White House advance operation. Edwards says auditors didn't look further into the matter, since non-DHS personnel are outside the scope of the investigation. White House spokesmen told multiple news outlets that an internal review concluded that no member of the advance team engaged in any inappropriate behavior during summit preparations. An investigation (.pdf) by Southern Command into DoD personnel released in August found that 12 service members brought Colombian women back to their hotel rooms in the lead-up to the summit, but also that national security wasn't jeopardized and that no government property or information was compromised. As of August, nine service members have been served with nonjudicial punishment, two cases remain under legal review and one individual was reprimanded but cleared of any violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Of the nine served with nonjudicial punishment, three have exercised their right to request a court martial. For more:
- download Edwards' letter summarizing the DHS OIG investigation (.pdf)
- download Southern Command's investigation report (.pdf) Related Articles:
Senators doubt Sullivan's assertion that Secret Service is free from systemic problems
Colombia prostitution scandal fallout widens
Secret Service woes plunge deeper after Colombia caper Read more about: DoD, White House Communication Agency
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Also Noted > Pakistan to talk counterterrorism with United States, Afghans. Article (New York Daily News)
> Iranian cult is no longer officially a terrorist group. Article (Wired)
> Flight attendant's gun goes off at Philadelphia airport TSA checkpoint. Article (Philadelphia Daily News)
> TSA pays $490 million for smaller, faster body scanners. Article (Nextgov)
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