This might be the last meeting [with Secretary Chertoff]. I feel that in some areas the Secretary and the Department of Homeland Security have done a good job. In some other areas, I think they definitely need to improve. I think several members brought some of the areas up [today].  To me, one of the things is the big picture—the culture that seems to exist in the agencies, this “us versus them” type of mentality.  I mean, we’re all on the same team. One example is that a couple days ago, we held a hearing on the National Emergency Communications Plan. [Homeland Security] missed the deadline.  We asked them if we could see a draft of the plan, we asked if we could see an executive copy of the plan, and they wouldn’t provide that over to us.  They were treating us like we were on a different team.  We’re on the same team.   At the same time, there’s an area of transition that we’ve talked about in the past.  We need to make sure that as the new administration comes in, that we have a transition plan between the current administration and whoever might arrive in January.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 17th, 2008 at 4:05 pm and is filed under Politics, Homeland Security .