I wanted to ask you just to talk a little bit about why the BUR and you conclude that this is necessary and how you think it will help the Department achieve its mission of protecting our homeland security.

You made a very important point at the end, which I just want to put an exclamation point next to.

One of our hopes when we created the Department was that a lot of the intelligence work that is naturally done by components of DHS... would be fed more routinely into the pool of intelligence from which everybody can draw.

We believe also that we need to look in a very deliberate way at the tools that are available to us to prevent terrorism here domestically.

the threat of nuclear terrorism is real and that terrorist groups continue to have an active interest in gaining the capability to carry out a nuclear terrorist attack, including within the United States.

Years ago, when I acquired a burglar alarm system for my house, at the end of the installation the man doing it gave me the stickers for the windows and the doors and said, 'Ninety-five percent of what you are paying for are these…

OK, because it is a serious charge, obviously.

Has to be domestic, of course. I appreciate that and am reassured to hear that.

President Obama must appoint a coordinator for the prevention of weapons of mass destruction, proliferation, and terrorism as required by the 2007 Homeland Security Act written by the Chairman and myself.

Yes. And the Department maintains the goal of improving the current monitoring equipment that we have?

I am right, is it not so, that the Homeland Security Presidential Directive 14 made clear that DNDO had this authority to work with other agencies for the specific purpose of developing the Global Nuclear Detection Architecture?

Inadequate planning causes schedule delays, cost overruns, and the procurement of the wrong kinds of technology at great cost to the taxpayer.

I really urge you to get it to us before the end of the year if you possibly can.

Thanks, Senator Collins.

To date, DHS has spent $4 billion on various aspects of the Nuclear Detection Architecture, but has not developed a strategic plan to guide its efforts to develop and implement this architecture, as we recommended in 2008.

The sooner the better, obviously.

No, not if I can help it.

I hate to do that reflexively. We give too much to the White House, really.

The American people face no greater or more urgent danger than a terrorist attack with a nuclear weapon.

What is holding up that strategic plan? Why hasn't it been done earlier, either by the previous Administration or this one?

It needs fresh new leadership, and we look forward to working with you on the progress that we all want.

the absence of a plan certainly facilitated what it sounds to me like what you would say was the most significant mistake that DNDO has made

So is part of this organizational? In other words, does DNDO not have adequate authority to coordinate across the various departments, even though the Homeland Security Presidential Directive 14 designated DNDO as the lead organization and…

It is unacceptable that our research and development arm would not talk to our operating arms.

This attempt to set up an architecture to prevent a terrorist nuclear attack on the United States did not just begin on September 11, 2001.