Wasted Lessons of 9/11: How the Bush Administration Has Ignored the Law and Squandered its Opportunities to Make Our Country Safer; House of Representatives rept

摘要

When President George W. Bush signed H.R. 1, 'Implementing the 9/11 Commission Recommendations Act of 2007,' into law on August 3, 2007 without any limiting statement, it seemed that the unfulfilled security recommendations of the 9/11 Commission would finally be implemented. To ensure that they were, over the past year the Majority staffs of the Committees on Homeland Security and Foreign Affairs have conducted extensive oversight to answer the question: How is the Bush Administration doing on fulfilling the requirements of H.R. 1 (P.L. 110-53). The Majority staffs of the two Committees prepared this report to summarize their findings. While the Majority staffs of the Committees found that the Bush Administration has taken some steps to carry out the provisions of the Act, this report focuses on the Administration's performance with respect to key statutory requirements in the following areas: (1) aviation security, (2) rail and public transportation security, (3) port security, (4) border security, (5) information sharing, (6) privacy and civil liberties, (7) emergency response, (8) biosurveillance, (9) private sector preparedness, and (10) national security. In each of the 25 individual assessments in this report, a status update is provided on the Bush Administration's performance on these key provisions. As this report demonstrates, the Bush Administration has not delivered on myriad critical homeland and national security mandates set forth in H.R. 1. Democratic Members of the Committees are alarmed that the Bush Administration has not made more progress on implementing these key provisions. Without them, the Administration has failed to provide the American people the security they expect and deserve. This report is intended as a wake-up call to the Bush Administration. In his short time left in office, the President should redouble his efforts to make America more secure by acting expeditiously to make the progress identified in this report.