The Office of University Programs seeks to stimulate, coordinate, leverage and utilize the unique intellectual capital within the academic community to address current and future homeland security challenges to provide educational support and relevant experiential learning opportunities to diverse and highly talented individuals in order to enhance the scientific leadership in areas of importance to DHS.

Dear Chairman McCain: On behalf of the Association of American Universities, which represents 60 leading research universities in the United States, I write to support President Bush’s nomination of Dr. Charles McQueary for the position of Undersecretary for Science and Technology in the new Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The dramatic and heart-stopping attacks of September 11, 2001 catapulted a new and unexpected challenge to the top of the U.S. national priorities list: protecting the United States homeland from terrorist threats. With President Bush’s announcement on June 6 of his plan to create a new Department of Homeland Security by
merging 27 federal agencies, the formation of the new Department became a focal point for longrange homeland security efforts.

The Act authorizes a transfer of activities from 22 agencies to the new Department of Homeland Security, including the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), the Coast Guard, the Secret Service, the Border Patrol, the Customs Service, the Transportation Security Administration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Office of Domestic Preparedness, plus others . The bill establishes the following positions: Secretary of Homeland Security (the President has nominated Tom Ridge), Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security (Nominee: Gordon England), Under Secretary for Science and Technology, Under Secretary for Border and Transportation Security (Nominee: Asa Hutchinson), and the Director of the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Service. The bill requires the new Department to develop a national homeland security strategy, and R&D is to be a part of the required strategy. In terms of R&D, it establishes the following: an Under Secretary for Science and Technology to fund research and to use advisory committees to bring in scientific advice, university-based centers for homeland security, a Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency (HSARPA) to facilitate competitive, merit-reviewed grants, an Acceleration Fund for Research and Development of Homeland Security Technologies, and an Office for National Laboratories.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES—107th Cong., 2d Sess. H.R. 5005: To establish the Department of Homeland Security, and for other purposes.

Leaders within the United States are involved in developing a strategy for the prevention of further terrorist attacks and for effective response and recovery should
the eventuality arise. One aspect of the strategy is to consider how the federal government should be most effectively organized in order to carry out its role.

Dear Presidents Alberts, Wulf, and Shine: We had the pleasure of organizing for The National Academies a meeting on December 13-14, 2001 entitled, Balancing National Security and Open Scientific Communication: Implications of September 11th for the Research University, that brought together over 100 individuals from the science and technology and security communities to grapple with and sort out the difficult and sensitive issues that the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington present for academic research. (The meeting agenda, roster of planning committee members, and list of registrants attached as Appendices A and B, and C, respectively.) The meeting was structured around three key topics: (1) access to scientific information and materials, (2) flow and tracking of foreign students/scholars/ faculty; and (3) needed new fields of study and research. In the report that follows, we provide a brief overview of each of these and identify the key policy questions that we believe would benefit from further study by The National Academies. In his keynote remarks that set an appropriate tone for the meeting, former Senator Gary Hart proffered recommendations of the Hart-Rudman report for consideration. (The Transcript of his remarks is attached as Appendix D.)