Congresswoman Sanchez Tells It Like It Is

Attendees of today's AFCEA Homeland Security conference sessions had the pleasure of hearing a quite spirited presentation by Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez (D-CA). Sanchez spoke bluntly to the issues of the DHS mission, border security and cybersecurity, pointing out that these topics are still quite the mystery not only to the general public but to Congress as well. DHS personnel have the lowest morale of all government agencies, she stated. This has been at least in part due to the lack of a centralized headquarters building, a problem that is currently being solved with the renovation and move into the vacant St. Elizabeth Hospital building in Washington, DC. As for border security, Sanchez admitted that a lot of time has been spent in the Secure Border Initiative (SBI) with a lot of major changes to come. The U.S. government needs to know -- as definitively as possible -- who is coming into and leaving the country and who resides here. "Once I can do that, I can spend my dollars on the real threats," she stated. To this end, the U.S. has been building up training, trust and intelligence with the Mexican government. In fact, the U.S. will soon begin to embed some personnel within the top Mexican intel community to help accomplish this goal. In terms of cybersecurity, the congresswoman pointed to a recently approved bill that allows the government to bring academia into the mix for finding solutions. In addition, the FY11 proposed budget includes $380 million to improve DHS cybersecurity and for future partnerships with industry in this area. Peppering in a bit of realism, Sanchez admitted that the current budget environment means that some very effective programs "will be whacked" because the DHS does not yet have a comprehensive plan, so evaluation of programs is not what it could and should be. "People will be cut out. I see that coming," she stated.