Overlooking oversight.

• Author: Peters, Charles
• Position: Tilting at Windmills - Airport security - Brief Article

This failure to find out what's going on extends to the Congress. Consider its oversight of the Department of Homeland Security. Although the Department's own inspector general and the GAO have issued many reports--in the case of the GAO, more than 100--citing lapses in airport security, watch-list shortcomings, lax cargo security, lost and stolen passports, and immigration non-enforcement among many troubling subjects, Audrey Hudson of The Washington Times reports that the House Homeland Security Committee held only 15 oversight hearings in 2003 and 2004. Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Calif.), the committee's chairman, explained that the committee...