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Homeland Security Legislation

Commentary
Improving DHS Accountability for Acquisitions
As the House of Representatives considers legislation that would reform the Department of Homeland Security's acquisitions process, an important issues come to the forefront—the need for accountability in the acquisitions process.
Apr 22, 2014
News Release
Extending Terrorism Insurance Program Could Save Federal Government Money After Future Attacks
The Terrorism Risk Insurance Act will expire soon and Congress is considering the appropriate government role in terrorism insurance markets. In a terrorist attack with losses up to $50 billion, the federal government would spend more helping to cover losses than if it had continued to support a national terrorism risk insurance program.
Apr 10, 2014
Report
Extending Terrorism Insurance Program Could Save Federal Government Money After Future Attacks
The Terrorism Risk Insurance Act will expire at the end of this year and Congress is considering the appropriate government role in terrorism insurance markets. In a terrorist attack with losses up to $50 billion, the federal government would spend more helping to cover losses than if it had continued to support a national terrorism risk insurance program.
Apr 9, 2014
News Release
Expiration of Terrorism Risk Insurance Act Could Hurt National Security
The current terrorism risk insurance act will expire in 2014 and Congress again is considering the appropriate government role in terrorism insurance markets.
Mar 6, 2014
Report
Expiration of Terrorism Risk Insurance Act Could Hurt National Security
The current terrorism risk insurance act will expire in 2014 and Congress again is considering the appropriate government role in terrorism insurance markets. If the act expires and the take-up rate for terrorism insurance falls, then the U.S. would be less resilient to future terrorist attacks.
Mar 6, 2014
Commentary
What Might Terrorists Do Next?
No one can predict with any certainty what terrorists might do next. If there is one lesson America learned about counterterrorism on 9/11, it's that the coming attack may look nothing like those that preceded it.
Feb 24, 2014
Commentary
Experts Are Working to Develop Evidence-Based Ways to Measure Anti-Terrorism Efforts
The effects of security measures ought not to be measured solely in terms of prevention. Different types of countermeasures produce different effects, such as deterrence, making it easier for security to intervene during an attempted attack, and providing visible security that reassures the public.
Feb 7, 2014
Commentary
The Real Homeland Security Issues for 2014
Americans should be able to discuss the terrorist threat and how best to meet it, how much of the country’s precious resources should be devoted to homeland security, and the impact intelligence efforts can have on personal privacy and freedom.
Feb 5, 2014
Commentary
Challenges and Opportunities Ahead for New Homeland Security Secretary
To ensure the Department of Homeland Security makes progress in the current constrained budget environment, its new secretary must put in place a strategic perspective to guide priorities for how to address the country's most pressing problems in disaster management, immigration reform, cybersecurity, violent extremism, and nuclear terrorism.
Oct 24, 2013
Commentary
Reacting to Boston
Basing public safety decisions on risk analysis allows authorities to devote public resources to those counterterrorism measures that have the potential to do the most good, writes Henry Willis.
Apr 22, 2013
Report
Reducing the Cost and Risk of Major Acquisitions at the Department of Homeland Security
Widespread cost, schedule, and performance shortfalls point to ongoing and expensive problems in the Department of Homeland Security acquisition process. Providing a common problem definition, conceptual framework, and recommendations that DHS officials can use should help improve efficiency and effectiveness.
Feb 28, 2013
Research Brief
Robust Decision Making Aids Planning Under Deep Uncertainty
Quantitative analysis is often indispensable to sound planning, but with deep uncertainty, predictions can lead decisionmakers astray. Robust Decision Making supports good decisions without predictions by testing plans against many futures.
Feb 28, 2013
Journal Article
How Evaluation Is Accommodated in Emergency Policy Making: A Comparison of Post-9/11 Emergency Legislation in the United Kingdom and the United States
A question this chapter posed is to what extent evaluation is accommodated in emergency legislation. The answer seems to be somewhat.
Jan 1, 2013
Journal Article
Five Pillars of American Grand Strategy
For at least a century, US grand strategy has had five principle goals. It is in how they are pursued that foreign policy changes from one era to the next.
Oct 1, 2012
Commentary
A Final Word on the NDAA
While I have no doubt of Levin's determination to protect the constitutional rights of American citizens, incremental adjustments and seemingly small compromises, each sensible under the circumstances, can have a cumulative effect that erodes the very liberty we are trying to protect, writes Brian Michael Jenkins.
May 7, 2012
Report
Assessing the Benefits of U.S. Customs and Border Protection Regulatory Actions to Reduce Terrorism Risks
Summarizes the proceedings of a workshop in which experts on regulatory analysis and terrorism risk examined alternative approaches for estimating the benefits of regulations designed to reduce the risks of terrorist attacks in the United States.
Apr 16, 2012
Commentary
The NDAA Makes It Harder to Fight Terrorism
Much of the debate over this bill has focused on the political issue of executive authority versus rule of law. In doing so it has overlooked the indirect and insidious effects the new law may have on the United States' largely successful counterterrorist campaign, writes Brian Michael Jenkins.
Feb 1, 2012
News Release
RAND Book Provides Critical Review of U.S. Actions Since 9/11; Recommends Future Anti-Terror Path
A new collection of essays by experts from the RAND Corporation examines America in the decade since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, focusing a critical eye on the nation's actions since the attacks and outlining changes in strategy needed to improve efforts against jihadist groups.
Jul 26, 2011
Report
RAND Book Provides Critical Review of U.S. Actions Since 9/11; Recommends Future Anti-Terror Path
A new collection of essays by experts from the RAND Corporation examines America in the decade since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, focusing a critical eye on the nation's actions since the attacks and outlining changes in strategy needed to improve efforts against jihadist groups.
Jul 26, 2011
Research Brief
Evaluating Alternatives for Renewing TRIA in an Uncertain World
This research brief summarizes an analysis of terrorism-insurance policy. The current law produces positive outcomes for conventional attacks but does not effectively address risks that nuclear, biological, chemical, or radiological attacks present.
Mar 3, 2008