House Homeland Security Committee Concludes Active and Productive 2011

Press Release

As 2011 draws to a close, the House Committee on Homeland Security, under the leadership of Chairman Peter T. King (R-NY), has concluded a productive and successful year of robust oversight, thoughtful legislating, and important fact-finding.

These initiatives include:

* Completion of four informative hearings examining the threat of radicalization within the Muslim-American community, including the first-ever joint House-Senate Homeland Security hearing;
* Enactment into law, or clearance for the President's signature, of three bills referred to the Committee (H.R. 1801, providing for expedited security screening for military personnel (Mr. Cravaack (R-MN)), P.L. 112-54 (H.R. 2042/S. 1487), providing for APEC travel cards, and H.R. 1540, the Department of Defense authorization);
* Committee passage of the first DHS authorization bill (H.R. 3116) since 2007;
* Committee passage of major chemical facility security legislation (H.R. 901);
* Committee passage of important transportation security and border security legislation;
* Committee and subcommittee hearings on mass transit security, aviation security, first responder communications, bin Laden's death, cybersecurity, border security, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Hezbollah in Latin America, Iranian terror operations, the expansion of Nigeria-based Boko Haram, and other serious security threats;
* Subcommittee passage of comprehensive TSA authorization legislation

Chairman King said: "I am proud of the Committee's accomplishments in 2011. When I was elected Chairman a year ago, I promised to return the focus of the Committee to counterterrorism, and along with the Committee's effective subcommittee chairmen, we have done that.

"The year began with me being vilified by Committee Democrats and left-wing politically correct media for my convening what has been a useful and informative series of hearings to examine the threat of radicalization within the Muslim-American community, an issue of great concern to national security and counterterrorism officials in the Obama Administration. The year ends with us having just had Senators Joe Lieberman and Susan Collins and their Senate Homeland Security Committee join us to examine the homegrown terror threat within and to the military at the first-ever joint House-Senate Homeland Security hearing. Along the way, the Committee focused on other security matters -- holding hearings on securing mass transit systems, improving first responder communications, and reforming TSA as well as passing a DHS authorization bill, chemical facility security legislation, and border and transportation security bills."

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