New information sharing office faces uncertain future

By Chris Strohm, CongressDaily

A federal office created to ensure information sharing and prevent terrorist attacks is in jeopardy of losing its funding as early as fiscal 2010, even though its work is far from being done, officials said during a Senate hearing Wednesday. The office is responsible for managing the Information Sharing Environment that Congress created through a 2004 law in response to government failures leading up to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The office opened just over two years ago, charged with ensuring that terrorism and homeland security information is shared between the federal government, state and local governments and private companies. "Unfortunately, there are some who would like to see the Information Sharing Environment program office defunded and disbanded by as early as 2010 and apparently then return to the old ways of doing business,"

Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee Chairman Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., said during a hearing to assess how much progress has been made on improving information sharing. "I want to make clear my firm opposition to any such move," said Lieberman, who was a primary architect of the 2004 law that created the office. Funding for the office would need to be secured by Oct. 1, 2009, the start of the 2010 fiscal year. ...