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Beers: WH Cybersecurity Review Does Not Realign Responsibilities |
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by Mickey McCarter
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Wednesday, 03 June 2009 |
Nominee for undersecertary of National Protection and Programs says he would be the official in charge of DHS cybersecurity
The White House cyber coordinator will have no operational authority and the undersecretary of National Protection and Programs at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the official in charge of efforts to secure federal computer systems, the nominee to fill that position told the Senate Homeland Security Committee Tuesday.
Rand Beers, President Barack Obama's nominee to head the DHS National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD), was questioned about DHS's role in cybersecurity by members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in the wake of the release of a White House study on the matter on May 29.
Beers intimated that he had discussed the matter with John Brennan, Obama's counter-terrorism advisor, Tuesday morning and that Brennan indicated the White House cybersecurity policy review resulted in no realignment of roles and missions fulfilled by DHS and that the Department remains "central" to the protection of cyber infrastructure.
The choice of words employed by Beers during his confirmation hearing came in response to Sen. Joseph Liebermann (I-Conn.), who asserted that DHS "must play a central role in any governmentwide cybersecurity strategy."
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), the committee's top Republican, voiced concern about who was actually in charge of cybersecurity at DHS, particularly given that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano made three cybersecurity-related appointments at NPPD on Monday.
Beers affirmed that as undersecretary of NPPD, if confirmed, he would be the person in operational control of DHS cybersecurity efforts.
Napolitano has worked to create a single chain of command that ends with the undersecretary of NPPD for the management of cybersecurity initiatives without turning to Congress for additional authority to rearrange the Directorate or the Department, Beers explained.
"With respect to the individuals already in place, we are assembling the strongest possible team that we could put together to give you and the country some assurance that DHS is here to protect America's cyber infrastructure," Beers remarked.
Collins also said she disliked the establishment of a White House cybersecurity czar (or "cybersecurity coordinator" in the words of Obama) because such a position creates difficulties for Congress to exercise oversight as presidential advisors traditionally have not been subject to congressional questioning. Congress must consider the White House cybersecurity proposals as well as alternative legislative proposals to strengthen cybersecurity, Collins declared.
But Beers assured Collins that the cybersecurity coordinator would serve "a coordinating function in the tradition of the National Security Council Staff, now National Security Staff based on the new reorganization" across federal agencies.
Other responsibilities
The NPPD is responsible for a range of programs and initiatives besides cybersecurity, Lieberman noted, including foreign traveler screening, infrastructure protection, and emergency communications.
With regard to foreign traveler screening, senators were eager to see a functional Exit portion stood up under the US-VISIT traveler biometric identification program. Overstay detection, as verified by the lack of an exit record for an immigrant visitor, could have prevented the 9/11 terrorist attacks when some of the 19 hijackers stayed in the country longer than their temporary visas permitted, Lieberman opined.
Beers vowed to stand up the Exit portion of US-VISIT biometric identification system, based on the results of a pilot recently started by DHS. He told senators that DHS would submit a budget proposal to implement the program as soon as the Department had some hard numbers to provide.
Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) observed that DHS had only about $20 million in the pipeline to fund the Exit program and had requested no additional money for it in fiscal 2010. He suggested that he might inject more initial funding for US-VISIT Exit into the DHS fiscal 2010 budget when the Senate Appropriations Committee took it up.
With regard to infrastructure protection, Beers endorsed the proposal to move the Federal Protective Service (FPS) from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement to NPPD, noting that it was a good "alignment of missions" as FPS protects federal critical infrastructure.
With regard to emergency communications, Beers told the committee that he would encourage another round of scorecards for interoperable communications for US urban areas and that he would investigate why DHS abandoned the Integrated Wireless Network program, which would have given law enforcement agents in the departments of Homeland Security, Justice and Treasury equal access to an interoperable communications network.
Beers also promised to reduce the NPPD's reliance on contractors, who fill more than 50 percent of the positions within the directorate, including acting as directors of several key offices that Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii) described as "inherently governmental."
If confirmed, Beers would move to increase the number of government employees at NPPD as quickly as possible, he said.
NPPD Deputy Undersecretary Philip Reitinger has undertaken a substantial effort to recruit qualified individuals, particularly for cybersecurity positions, Beers testified, noting there have been plenty of applicants.
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Mickey McCarter |
| About the author: |
| eNewsletter Editor/Senior Washington Correspondent,
is a journalist with more than a decade of experience in reporting
on
military affairs and information technology.
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