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Campaigns agree on homeland security

By Ben Conery (Contact) | Saturday, October 18, 2008

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The homeland-security plans of presidential candidates Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama contain significant common ground: Both favor the recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission and directing federal homeland-security money to where it is most needed, for example - and both voted to reauthorize the USA Patriot Act.

There are differences, though one expert described them as mostly matters of focus on areas within the sprawling issue, which includes counterterrorism, infrastructure protection and responding to natural disasters.

Despite its scope, the issue of homeland security has not played a major role in this campaign, a stark contrast to the 2004 presidential election when the issue helped propel President Bush back to the White House. This year, the economic crisis, health care and other issues have taken precedence.

"The fact that we don't have this as a major issue is because there's more or less a consensus," said David Silverberg, editor of Homeland Security Today magazine. "Both of them acknowledge that there's a threat, that's the important thing."

Phil Leggiere, the online managing editor for Homeland Security Today, was struck by the lack of detail in each candidates' homeland-security planks. He said the information on their Web sites is mostly rhetorical.

"Broadly, on all the main issues, there's not a lot of substantive differences," he said.

Their Senate records show some of the differences in emphasis are tied to their geographic origins.

Mr. McCain, Arizona Republican, highlights on his campaign Web site that he co-sponsored the Border Security First Act of 2007, which provided $3 billion for, among other things, the construction of a 700-mile border fence.

The campaign Web site of Mr. Obama, Illinois Democrat, highlights his sponsorship with Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, New Jersey Democrat, of a bill to improve security at chemical plants. Both New Jersey and Illinois have a concentration of such facilities.

Both White House hopefuls have expressed support for better information sharing between federal and local authorities, but Mr. Leggiere said they differ on intelligence sharing with foreign governments.

He said Mr. Obama believes in coordination among international law enforcement agencies, particularly in areas that don't necessarily belong to a particular country, such as securing cyberspace, telecommunication grids and financial distribution networks.

"For Obama, it's a focal point," Mr. Leggiere said. "For McCain, they're skeptical about the efficiency of that approach to begin with, and it's certainly not a linchpin of their other policy."

Similarly, both candidates want to improve cargo screening at ports. But they have different ideas about how best to accomplish the upgrade.

Mr. Obama supports mandated screening of all cargo into the U.S. On the other hand, Mr. Leggiere said, Mr. McCain supports a more risk-based approach to targeting specific cargo with the help of new equipment, particularly of the commercial, off-the-shelf, instead of proprietary, technology.

But perhaps the most important homeland-security issue facing the next president will be choosing an effective homeland-security secretary who can improve the operation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and improve the morale of the department's employees, which is considered by some to be among the lowest among federal employees.

"DHS has to be a functional department. Tearing it apart or disassembling it - that is not going to make things better," said Mr. Silverberg. "The next president and his homeland security secretary have to make that a smoothly functioning, coefficient and really exemplary federal agency.

"And that is a gigantic job," Mr. Silverberg added.