How Will Obama First Be Tested? -- National Journal
James Jay Carafano, Assistant Director, Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for International Studies and Senior Research Fellow, Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies, Heritage Foundation
#1 Obama’s first test will likely come from the greatest threat to national security—the Congress. Increasingly, in recent years the Congress has demonstrated it does not take homeland security all that seriously—ignoring a key 9/11 Commission recommendation to consolidate the committees that have jurisdiction over the department; holding hearings to trumpet political causes rather than exercise serious oversight; and imposing ridiculous and unnecessary mandates that cost a lot of money and add little, if any security. Likely as not, one of the first initiatives in the new Congress will be an effort to rip the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) out of the department. This effort has nothing to do with improving security. FEMA does not need to be moved to run better. That’s been proved. The agency has just finished one of its most challenging and successful years—ever. FEMA is fixed. Trying to take FEMA “out” is an exercise in old-fashioned constituent politics. If the administration and the new secretary let the Congress get away with this there will be a feeding frenzy on the department, with Congress and not the new leadership calling the shots. Instead of a national security agency, Homeland Security will become the highway trust fund, little more than a place to launder pork-barrel spending (just as the 9/11 Commission warned)—that is until the next terrorist attack.
Read more ....
My Comment: I agree with the assertion that Congress will be more of a spoke in a President Obama foreign policy goal .... especially if money is involved.
