Susan Collins

I share the concern of the Chairman that we do not have one person who is accountable to Congress, who is in charge of the strategy.

We must ask this question: Are there other Iraqi nationals granted asylum who were involved in attacking our troops?

As Senator Collins says, the Lab Response Network is critically important to our biodefense.

It has been just 2 weeks since the operation in Yemen killed Anwar al-Awlaki, who reportedly sought poisons, including cyanide and ricin, to attack the United States.

But when? What is the time table?

Can you assure us today that the Department has reviewed the files of every Iraqi national who was admitted under that program to ensure that there was proper vetting, including matching fingerprints with databases in possession of the…

In a report that was released by GAO earlier this year, GAO took a look at the Transportation Worker Identification Credential program that is used for access to our seaports, and its findings were disturbing in terms of protecting us from…

The strategy produced by the White House does not clearly assign the responsibility to an individual who we can hold accountable.

That is not a great record in the area of procurement.

Has it made us safer as a Nation? Was it a good idea to bring all 22 agencies together in terms of improving our security?

Several years ago, before you assumed your current position, there actually was a problem with the Maine State troopers having interference from the New Hampshire State troopers when they were using the same channels in Southern Maine.

The effectiveness of emergency communications has emerged as a concern due to the failures that occurred in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and the Hurricane Katrina disaster.

Homegrown terrorism is another challenge and evolving threat.

What is being done to improve coordination between DHS and HHS in this area...

First, let me thank you for holding today's hearing to review the first 8 years of the Department of Homeland Security, whose vital mission is to protect our Nation and our people.

However, I do not want to slight the importance of warning the public prior to a disaster striking.

It is disappointing to me, therefore, that the President in his budget chose to terminate the funding for the Interoperability Emergency Communications Grant program.

For reasons that are not clear to me yet--and we have to talk to him and his staff--that is $4 billion less than the Rockefeller-Hutchison bill and Senator McCain and my bill.

I have been a supporter of fusion centers. I have visited two of them--one in a large urban area, one in a rural State.

We shall never forget those whom we lost on September 11, 2001.

How bad will that be for the improved management of the Department?

When do you anticipate that the Department will complete its review of how in the world this could have happened...

It has cost the taxpayers literally billions of dollars.

Not only did the 9/11 attacks represent a 'failure of imagination,' as the 9/11 Commission found, they also revealed the inadequacy of communications equipment, technology, and systems.

That another aspect of the Abdulmutallab case that was most disturbing to me was that the derogatory information about Abdulmutallab from his father to our embassy officials did not trigger the revocation of his visa