Analyzing Congress's homeland security agenda
theft and fraud that weakens the identification system and facilitates illegal immigration.
- Do not punish tourists. Tourism dropped after 9/11, but taxing tourists to get them to come back makes no sense. The authors say that the Tourism Promotion Act was reintroduced this year in both the Senate and House. This legislation would create another government entity — a corporation, funded on the backs of foreign tourists — to promote travel to the U.S. Promoting tourism is important to America’s economic well-being, but this is the kind of activity that the government should stay out of. “Instead of taxing tourists, the government should focus on making travel to the U.S. easier by expanding the Visa Waiver Program, improving visa services, and upgrading infrastructure at key ports of entry.”
- Do not subsidize hurricanes. The Homeowners Defense Act (HDA) would create a catastrophic insurance fund — like the bankrupt and highly inefficient National Flood Insurance Program — which would provide government insurance to homeowners and businesses to protect against the next catastrophic hurricane. The authors insist that such legislation “would, essentially, require all Americans to subsidize those who live in hurricane-prone areas and would allow the states to create unrealistic disaster insurance programs and once again turn to the federal government to cover losses.” They correctly point out that one of the weaknesses in the HDA is that it uses the term catastrophic to decide which disasters would be covered by the act, but it fails to define what constitutes “catastrophic.” As a result, the HDA could easily be interpreted to mean any disaster.
What Congress should do
Going forward, “Congress needs to stop playing politics and pandering to stakeholders and start looking at homeland security in a holistic, long-term, sustainable fashion.” Congressional priorities should include the following:
- Scrap the 100 percent mandates. Congress’s 100 percent scanning mandate for maritime security and air cargo continue to plague DHS, the authors assert. The department cannot find a way to meet the mandate in a way that is practical and cost-effective and actually enhances security. Furthermore, most security and supply chain experts argue that the mandates are unnecessary and would add little security. Congress should rethink these unworkable mandates before more time, money, and resources are wasted.
- Amend the Stafford Act. Much like the HDA, the 1988 Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act did not contain strict enough limits on what can qualify for a federal “disaster” declaration. “As
