Yesterday Sen. Lieberman’s office, on behalf of him and Susan Collins, chair of the Senate committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, released a letter to DHS head Mike Chertoff. The title of the Lieberman press release says it all:

COLLINS, LIEBERMAN EXPRESS CONCERN ON DHS SITUATIONAL AWARENESS DEFICIENCIES

Little Progress Seen Since Hurricane Katrina

The letter is long. In essence, Lieberman and Collins are accusing DHS of making little to no progress toward having a solid, functioning, and competent center of operations for the next disaster. They use the term “situational awareness” over and again throughout their letter. What they mean is that DHS has not built sufficient capacity to be able to gather on-the-scene reports from the myriad and scattered agencies and first responders on a disaster. This letter is the latest in body of work from HSGAC trying to light a fire under DHS’s heels (written about here).

Of course, there’s another interesting sideshow to notice here. After the WTC attacks and the creation of the new Department of Homeland Security, both chambers of Congress created a new committee to match the new executive branch agency. The Senate wrapped up its Homeland Security committee into its existing Committee on Government Affairs, creating the horribly awkward acronym HSGAC. [his-GACK? hus-GACK? H-S-GACK? HIS-gack?] The House created a standalone Committee on Homeland Security and didn’t touch the existing Committee on Government Reform (which I believe was a creation of the 1994 Republican takeover…not that the committee was new, just that it was renamed, adding the “reform” part).

With Henry Waxman taking over the Government Reform Committee in the House, it’s clear what that committee is going to be spending its time on. Namely, the same thing that Rep. Waxman has been doing as a sort of unseated power unto himself for the past few years. Except now he’ll have the power to actually hold oversight hearings, which are sure to include hearings on the misuse of science.

But judging by what it has taken on over the past year, Senate HSGAC doesn’t seem to be headed that way. HSGAC has seemed to delve exclusively into the HS of HSGAC, although they’ve filed their inquiries into Iraq reconstruction under GA instead of HS. You can get a sense of what they’ve been doing by clicking through the links on this page. HSGAC has had two main issues of concern: the spate of DHS’s responsibilities (including how DHS is handling their disaster response responsibilities under FEMA), and how Iraq reconstruction is being managed. Those of you clamoring for a Democrat counterassault to the “Republican War on Science” will probably be seeing it out of the House and not out of the Senate.