There will be no major changes to the Bush administration’s controversial border and identity programs as a result of the White House’s new National Strategy for Homeland Security, the president’s homeland security adviser Frances F. Townsend says.
The new strategy, which replaces the one written in 2002, for the first time defines the goal of homeland security as “sustain[ing] our way of life as a free, prosperous, and welcoming America.”
“I don’t expect major changes to them,” said Miss Townsend of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) and the Real ID driver’s license regulations.
“They’ve been the subject of extensive dialogue both on [Capitol] Hill and with our international partners,” she said, acknowledging, “I wouldn’t say everybody’s in agreement.”
WHTI, a congressionally mandated requirement to tighten identity checks at U.S. borders, is scheduled to enter its final phase next year, when it will be introduced at the nation’s already congested land-border crossings.
But the proposed changes have brought protests from some businesses and lawmakers, especially on the northern border, where the new requirements for a passport or other secure identification will collide with the reality of communities that sprawl across the frontier in both directions and a tourist trade that relies on frictionless transit for much of its profit margin.
The final regulations for Real ID are expected later this year. They will define minimum security requirements states must meet if the driver’s licenses they issue are to be valid for federal purposes, such as boarding a plane.
Many state governments regard the rules as an unfunded federal mandate and are concerned that deadlines in the final regulation may be too tight.
Both programs “address real security needs and we believe we have demonstrated the value of them and the necessity of them,” Miss Townsend told United Press International.
The new strategy, issued last week in a conference call with reporters, was seen as underwhelming by most commentators.
It called for a “culture of preparedness” among Americans nationwide, and emphasized that disaster response is initially a function of state and local, not federal, government.
“We very consciously said, ’This is a shared responsibil-ity,’ ” Miss Townsend said. “So we spent a lot of time with think tanks, with state and locals, with private-sector stakeholders, to make sure we got a variety of views, not all of which agree with us.”
Recently resigned senior Homeland Security preparedness official George Foresman said consultation was inadequate. “There was a missed opportunity to engage a larger group of stakeholders” in drawing up the strategy, he said.
Heritage Foundation analyst James Jay Carafano called the new strategy a “bureaucratic ticking the box exercise,” which lacked the requirement of a real strategy, “Something that forces you to make hard choices.”
“This is Washington doing what Washington does,” he said.
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