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Today's Top Stories
1. Auditors: FEMA should probe DARFA waiver recipients
2. Fund the FLAME Act, Colorado wildfire commission tells Congress
3. Ex-DOJ drug intelligence chief: War on drugs is 'insanity'
4. Panelists: Obama has let Guantanamo slip from public consciousness
5. Arctic undergoing widespread and sustained climate changes Editor's Corner: Don't consolidate House DHS oversight into the House Homeland Security Committee Also Noted: Oracles fixes Java after DHS told users to disable it; Britain extradites terror suspect to the U.S.; and much more...  Follow @fiercegov on Twitter
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Don't consolidate House DHS oversight into the House Homeland Security Committee
 Chances of consolidating House oversight of the Homeland Security Department this Congress appear slim, say lawmakers quoted in The Hill.
And oversight of DHS is fractured and appears excessive, with Congress having consolidated executive branch homeland security functions into the department without a corresponding consolidation of its committees. But there would be significant downsides to aggregating homeland security oversight in the House to the House Homeland Security Committee--including the big one that the House Homeland Security Committee would really be in charge of it. Over the past 2 years, the conduct of the committee has been less than stellar. It's offered a platform for paranoia about the role of Muslims in American society, sought to conflate the war against al Qaeda and its affiliates with Islam, actively looked for new enemies it could frighten the American people with, and twisted precise language about Customs and Border Protection southwestern border operations to paint a false picture of border security. No wonder House leadership ignores it. True, this new Congress means a new chairman--one who hasn't in the past defended a terrorist organization (as departing chairman Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) did for the Irish Republican Army). But incoming chairman Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) has already said his share of crazy things, such as calling for the designation of Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations. Not all evil organizations or people are terrorists, if the term is to have any meaning. Fractured oversight is bad--but do we really want consolidated oversight in that organization? Nope. - Dave |
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Today's Top News 1. Auditors: FEMA should probe DARFA waiver recipients
 In imparting repayment waivers to recipients of improperly allowed major disaster individual assistance grants, the Federal Emergency Management Agency doesn't probe recipients closely enough, says the Homeland Security Department office of inspector general.
FEMA has authority under a 2011 law to waive debts arising from receipt of improperly bestowed individual assistance grants connected with major disasters declared between Aug. 28, 2005 (i.e., the Hurricane Katrina declaration) and the end of 2010. The law, the Disaster Assistance Recoupment Fairness Act, requires FEMA to withhold a waiver if there's evidence that the improper payment was the fault of the recipient. The agency directive implementing the law holds recipients to a known or should have known standard for familiarity with terms and conditions attached to disbursement of individual assistance grants, a standard lower than intent to deceive. In the latest (.pdf) in a series of reports examining FEMA implementation of the law, auditors say FEMA hasn't required debtors potentially eligible for a waiver to explain why they are not at fault for receipt of an improper payment. FEMA estimates that of the $8 billion it dispersed in assistance payments during the period covered by the law, about $371 million was potentially improper. Following hurricanes Katrina and Rita, FEMA loosened its controls for individual assistance disbursement. "We think it is reasonable for there to be evidence in the waiver case file that explains why the debtor did not cause the improper payment," auditors say--something FEMA contests in its official response to the report. "It is reasonable to assume that most individuals who apply for FEMA assistance have no specific knowledge about FEMA eligibility requirements. In addition, FEMA's ability to judge debtor fault is limited given the lengthy passage of time since the overpayments were first provided," wrote Adrian Sevier, FEMA deputy chief counsel. Auditors say they've come across cases containing evidence showing fault by debtors. They cite one case of a $12,021 grant given to a recipient who falsely claimed home ownership and who received a waiver. The FEMA adjudicator, auditors say, concluded that the payment occurred because a FEMA home inspector failed to discover that the individual wasn't the true home owner--a fact auditors don't dispute, but disagree with, since the recipient supplied false information. For more:
- download the report, OIG-13-17 (.pdf) Related Articles:
Improper payment recovery at FEMA so far costs more than collections
The never-ending, fully-funded FEMA projects in Louisiana
Threshold for FEMA public assistance grants hasn't kept up with inflation Read more about: FEMA, FEMA grants
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2. Fund the FLAME Act, Colorado wildfire commission tells Congress
 A state commission looking into a fatal Colorado wildfire calls on Congress to fully fund the Federal Land Assistance, Management and Enhancement (FLAME) Act, which provides for emergency wildfire suppression. Congress approved the act in 2009, but has not provided full fire-suppression funding to the Forest Service and the Interior Department, according to the report (.pdf) to the Colorado legislature by the Lower North Fork Wildfire Commission. The March 2012 fire, which killed 3 people and destroyed or significantly damaged 27 homes, occurred when embers from a state-managed prescribed burn flared up during high winds. The resulting Lower North Fork Wildfire in rural Jefferson County, southwest of Denver, caused $11.3 million in private property damages. The state spent $6.6 million to put out the fire. The FLAME Act was to establish two funds, one each for the Forest Service and Interior, to help finance emergency wildfire suppression costs. Previously money had been transferred from other agency programs to pay for emergency firefighting costs, undermining other programs, the commission said. But Congress still hasn't appropriated enough money to fully implement the act. Most of the commission's other recommendations involve state programs, such as establishing a centralized reverse-911 call system and developing a consistent source of funding wildfire suppression. The state previously shifted management of prescribed burns from the Colorado State Forest Service to the Public Safety Department's Division of Fire Prevention and Control. The commission also suggests introduction and passage of several state bills, including legislation adopting standards for prescribed burns; creating an interim committee to examine wildfire prevention and mitigation matters issues including forest health and emergency management; and development of a statewide resource mobilization plan by the Public Safety Department's Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. For more: Related Articles: Read more about: Colorado, Forest Service
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3. Ex-DOJ drug intelligence chief: War on drugs is 'insanity'
 The former head of the Justice Department's National Drug Intelligence Center says the war on drugs has been a massive failure and argues for a focus on treatment in a Dec. 27 paper.
The paper (.pdf) was published (though its views not endorsed) by the Army War College's Strategic Studies Institute. In it, Michael Walther, who was a military judge between stints at the DOJ, calls the prevailing counterdrug strategy of the past four decades "insanity." Billions of dollars spent annually on supply reduction and law enforcement hasn't resulted in less available drugs. Walther favors a solution that includes addiction treatment on demand and mandated treatment as a condition of probation or pretrial release for drug offenders. Additionally, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy should reorganize to take more control over the federal counterdrug budget. Interagency rivalries have led to wasteful and duplicative efforts, Walther says. Budget constraints could present an opportunity to phase out expensive programs in foreign countries such as crop eradication and aid programs for police and military counterdrug units. They haven't successfully reduced drug availability in the United States, Walther says. Treatment for addicts is relatively cheap and appears to limit drug use effectively. While President Obama and officials in his administration have highlighted the need for more treatment, their actions haven't matched their rhetoric, Walther says. As he sees it, Obama's counterdrug strategy is "virtually indistinguishable from that of his predecessors." The imbalance between supply- and demand-reduction spending has continued under Obama at roughly the same levels, about two-to-one in favor of supply reduction. But as for legalization, Walther says it "is almost certainly not the answer." For more:
- download the paper, "Insanity: Four Decades of U.S. Counterdrug Strategy" (.pdf) Related Articles:
UNODC: Less drug trafficking often means more violence
Precursor chemical controls haven't reduced meth quantities, says paper
Drug sniffing dogs' status under Fourth Amendment before Supreme Court Read more about: war on drugs, counternarcotics
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4. Panelists: Obama has let Guantanamo slip from public consciousness
 President Obama has made closing the Guantanamo Bay detention camp even harder by letting it fade from the national political conversation, panelists at the New America Foundation said Jan. 11.
The government can continue to hold prisoners cleared for release "because nobody cares enough," said Andy Worthington, a journalist who has authored a book and directed a documentary about Guantanamo. Obama should at least take up the issue and argue with members of Congress who oppose the release of prisoners or the facility's closure, but he's allowed it to drift away, Worthington said. Morris Davis, the former chief prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay, said Obama has let Republicans dictate the terms of the debate on the issue and that he should use the bully pulpit as he did during the fiscal cliff debate and has begun to do on gun violence. Thomas Wilner, an attorney who has represented Guantanamo detainees, said that after Obama initially tried to close Guantanamo in 2009, he didn't do enough to dispute the claims of those who said all the facility's detainees were dangerous, when in fact dozens had been cleared for release by the Bush administration. The process to clear detainees for release was very conservative, Wilner noted. All the agencies involved had to agree that a person was no threat to the United States and had no intelligence value. Wilner also lamented that, from the impression he's gotten, it seems many young people who don't remember the time when Guantanamo was a prominent issue know little or nothing about it, because political leaders and the media discuss it so rarely. One hundred sixty-six detainees remain at the facility, some of whom have been cleared for release since the mid-2000s. For those who were told long ago that they would be released, Worthington said the experience is likely "more cruel than a dictatorship" that is candid about its intent to hold prisoners indefinitely. For more:
- go to the event webpage (archived webcast available) Related Articles:
Moving Guantanamo detainees to U.S. would be logistical headache
U.S. says plaintiffs in Hedges v. Obama face no threat of detention
Court overturns conviction of bin Laden's driver Read more about: Barack Obama, New America Foundation
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5. Arctic undergoing widespread and sustained climate changes
 This past year and the years before it contained strong evidence that the Arctic environment has undergone widespread and sustained changes occurring at a faster-than-anticipated rate, says the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Among the unprecedented events witnessed in 2012 was a nearly ice sheet-wide melt on Greenland. Melting ice contributes directly to sea level rise, and it also accelerates the further loss of ice cover by lubricating the underside of glaciers, accelerating their flow, further contributing to sea level rise. Surface melt also makes ice less reflective, decreasing its albedo, causing it to absorb more sunlight and so enter into a self-reinforcing loop of melting more. As a result, the effects of global warming are stronger in the Arctic by a factor of two or more than at lower altitudes, Don Perovich, a Dartmouth College adjunct professor said (.pdf) in late 2012. Arctic sea ice reaches its lowest summer minimum yet on Sept. 16, when it constituted just 1.3 million square miles. Each of the past 6 years has set a new minimum record dating back to when satellite observation began in 1979. NOAA also notes that snow cover in high latitudes in North America and Eurasia hit new record lows in June. In the Northern Hemisphere, the rate of snow cover between 1979 and 2012 declined by 17.6 percent, a rate faster than that of sea ice loss. For more:
- go to a NOAA Arctic report card for 2012 Related Articles:
Interior expedites review of Arctic drilling after rig incident
Arctic sea ice at record low
Northwest Passage channel appears free of ice
Papp: The Coast Guard can't lease all its icebreakers Read more about: Greenland, NOAA
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Also Noted > Britain extradites terror suspect to the United States. Article (CNN)
> Study: Emissions limits could curb climate damage. Article (Reuters)
> Napolitano will stay on as Homeland Security secretary. Article (WaPo)
> Oracles fixes Java after DHS told users to disable it. Article (Boston Globe)
> Thousands of infrastructure and industrial control systems are at risk. Article (InfoWeek) And Finally… Behind-the-scenes shots from when movies had mechanical special effects. Article (Neatorama) > Federal security concerns and the cloud - January 29, 2013, 11 am ET/ 8 am PT Join FierceGovernmentIT for a webinar while we discuss the extent to which data security concerns act as a cloud computing adoption obstacle, the extent to which the can be mitigated and the resulting impacts those mitigations may have on use cases and deployment. Register Today.
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