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FederalDaily - May 4, 2007

Lawmakers Question DHS Computer Security

Key members of the House Committee on Homeland Security have requested information about computer security within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) after recently hearing testimony concerning widepread hacking incidents that took place last year at the Departments of State and Commerce. Committee members, led by Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., sent a letter to DHS Chief Information Officer Scott Charbo, seeking answers to 13 questions about information security at the agency. In the letter, lawmakers cited a subcommittee hearing held last month into the 2006 State and Commerce hacking incidents and said they are concerned that similar incidents might be occurring within DHS networks. Specifically, committee members want to know the number of security incidents reported by DHS to the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) and the number of cyber-attacks that it had suffered between 2004 and 2007. The committee is expanding its review of federal IT systems, starting with DHS. “These incidents jeopardize the integrity of our government’s information,” they said in the letter, which was released May 1. To see more, go to: http://homeland.house.gov/press/index.asp?ID=207

Nicholson Urged to Shore Up VA Vet Center Staffing

A bipartisan contingent of lawmakers is urging Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Jim Nicholson to address staffing shortages reported at VA walk-in clinics—known as Vet Centers—which are struggling to keep up with increasing demand. Rep. Phil Hare, D-Ill., of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, and 43 of his colleagues sent a letter to Nicholson urging him to immediately address the staffing crisis at the centers. While the number of returning Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans visiting Vet Centers has more than doubled since 2004, staffing has only increased by 10 percent. “These staffing shortages unacceptably jeopardize the mental and physical health of both returning troops and aging veterans at a time when more than one in four troops have acknowledged mental health issues,” said the letter, released May 2. “We cannot continue to care for our veterans on the cheap,” Hare said. To see more, go to: http://hare.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=64097

DOI Official Resigns Amid Censorship Flap

Interior Department (DOI) Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks Julie MacDonald, at the center of a controversy over the censorship of scientific findings, resigned April 30. MacDonald oversaw the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) endangered species program and was criticized for allegedly using her position to squelch the protection of endangered species by rewriting scientific reports, bullying FWS employees and colluding with industry lawyers. Activists cheered her departure. “The resignation of Julie MacDonald from the Department of the Interior is merely the latest example of the serious corruption problem that appears to be endemic amongst senior officials at the agency,” said Sean Cosgrove, of the Sierra Club. Her resignation does not solve the pervasive problem of political interference at federal agencies, said a statement by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), a MacDonald critic. “She represents a much larger problem of widespread political interference at federal agencies,” said UCS Scientific Integrity Program Director Francesca Grifo. Also on April 30, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore, placed a hold on Senate confirmation of Lyle Laverty, President Bush’s nominee for Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks, until the senator is “satisfied that such transgressions will not happen again.” To see more, go to: www.sierraclub.org/pressroom/releases/pr2007-05-01a.asp or www.ucsusa.org/news/press_release/interior-official-who-0025.html