Nomination of Gordon England to be Deputy Secretary of the Homeland Security Department

SEN. COLLINS: (Chuckles.) We—one of whom has been renamed as Ted this morning, I believe. (Laughter.) But we are pleased to have you here this morning.

Secretary England has filed responses to a biographical and financial questionnaire, answered pre-hearing questions submitted by the committee and had his financial statement reviewed by the Office of Government Ethics. Without objection, this information will be made part of the hearing record, with the exception of the financial data, which are on file and available for public inspection in the committee offices.

Our committee rules require that all witnesses in nomination hearings give their testimony under oath. So, Secretary England, I would ask that you stand and raise your right hand.

Do you swear that the testimony that you are about to give to the committee will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God?

SEN. COLLINS: One concern that I hear frequently expressed at the state and local level is that they—local law enforcement lacks access to information that might be useful in identifying literally terrorists in their midst, if you will. The police chief in Portland, Maine, Mike Chitwood, has told me many stories about his efforts to coordinate with the FBI, with other federal law enforcement officials on matters of homeland security. And he has told me that information sharing is the biggest obstacle that he faces. Similarly, in a recent report by the Council on Foreign Relations which was led by former senators Hart and Rudman, the statement was made that some 650,000 local and state police officers continue to operate in a virtual intelligence vacuum. How do you balance the need to get information down at the lowest possible level with concerns that the more people who have access to sensitive information, the more vulnerable it may be to being compromised?

SEN. COLLINS: I'm very glad to hear you say that. I had suggested, along with my colleagues Senator Carper and Senator Feingold, that we actually have a department employee stationed in each of the 50 states. I think at minimum, we need a good point of contact in each state. And we do need to remember that the ones who are on the front lines and are the first responders aren't people working at headquarters in Washington; they're our police officers, our firefighters, our emergency medical personnel. And I'm very pleased to hear you state that commitment.

I want to raise just one other question with you before I turn to Senator Pryor for his questions during this round, and that has to do with privacy concerns about the new department. Many of us have read about the project undertaken by the Department of Defense which has been called Total Information Awareness. On the one hand, Congress often criticizes federal agencies for not having their computers talk to one another. On the other hand, when they do talk to one another and you start combining massive databases, it raises concerns about the privacy rights of average Americans against whom there are no allegations of wrongdoing or suspicions.

How will you ensure that the new department, in its need to gather and assess more information, does not tread on the privacy rights and the civil liberties of Americans, rights that are the very foundation of our country?

SEN. COLLINS: The Maritime Transportation Security Act requires the implementation of background checks for a variety of port workers. That's another part of improving port security. Similarly, the U.S.A. Patriot Act requires those kinds of background checks for truckers carrying hazardous waste. Yet a recent story in the Wall Street Journal suggests that not a single trucker nor single longshoreman has been screened or has undergone any kind of background check, and that there is a lot of disagreement over who should be checked and whether individuals with criminal histories should be allowed to even have these kinds of jobs. Do you have any kind of time table for implementing those regulations? The U.S.A. Patriot Act in particular has been law for quite some time now, and it is of concern that it appears that there is no progress in implementing these background checks.

SEN. COLLINS: Finally, Secretary England, the new department includes an Office of International Affairs, and I think we can learn a lot from other countries, particularly Israel, which unfortunately has a long history of preparing for and responding to terrorist attacks. Recently I met with two constituents who worked for the Maine Community Policing Institute. And much to my surprise, both had been to Israel for training for first responders dealing with a terrorist attack. Do you see a role—how do you see the role of this office as far as harvesting the techniques or technologies that are available in other countries, which might be useful to us in improving our homeland security?