No. 145: Ensure the Guard and Reserves can meet their homeland security missions
"The poor readiness of America's Guard and Reserve forces threatens our ability to respond to natural disasters or terrorist attacks at home. We saw this, sadly, after both Hurricane Katrina and the tornadoes in Kansas. Because of the depletion of its resources in Iraq, the National Guard is less ready today than it was on 9/11. Nearly 90 percent of units have serious equipment shortages; many have less than 1/3 of the equipment they require. A particular focus of Obama's plan will be to reverse the trend of "cross-leveling," the cannibalizing of soldiers and machines from units back home for missions abroad."
No. 182: Allocate Homeland Security funding according to risk
"Direct our precious homeland security dollars according to risk, not as a form of general revenue sharing."
No. 183: Review Homeland Security every four years
"Barack Obama will have the Department of Homeland Security complete a Quadrennial Review the same way the Pentagon does every four years. The review will be a comprehensive examination of the national homeland defense strategy, inter-agency cooperation, preparedness of
Federal response assets, infrastructure, budget plan, and other elements of the homeland defense program and policies of the United States with a view toward determining and expressing the homeland defense strategy of the United States and establishing a homeland defense program for the next 20 years."
No. 184: Create a real National Infrastructure Protection Plan
"The federal government's National Asset Database, which is supposed to guide homeland security priorities, lists 77,069 potential U.S. targets including petting zoos and popcorn factories. Experts say this database is relatively useless for any level of homeland security planning. Barack Obama's Department of Homeland Security will develop a meaningful critical infrastructure protection plan across the nation and will work with the private sector to ensure that all real targets are prepared for disasters both natural and man-made."
No. 185: Establish regulations to secure chemical plants
"Barack Obama will establish a clear set of federal regulations that all plants must follow, including improving barriers, containment, mitigation, and safety training, and, where possible, using safer technology, such as less toxic chemicals."
No. 186: Improve port security through better radiation detection
"Will redouble our efforts to develop technology that can detect radiation and determine the danger it poses, and he will work with the maritime transportation industry to integrate this technology into their operations so as to maximize security without causing economic disruption."
No. 187: Prioritize security investments in refineries, pipelines and power grids
"Barack Obama will prioritize security investments in our refineries and pipelines and power grids."
No. 188: Increase funding for local emergency planning
"Obama is committed not only to rolling back the funding cuts that have affected first responders, but also to increasing federal resources and logistic support to local emergency planning efforts."
No. 189: Improve communications systems for first responders
"Barack Obama supports efforts to provide greater technical assistance to local and state first responders and dramatically increase funding for reliable, interoperable communications systems. He also supports a more rapid turnover of broadcast spectrum to first responders."
No. 190: Improve domestic intelligence gathering between federal and local emergency responders
"Barack Obama will improve our intelligence system by creating a senior position to coordinate domestic intelligence gathering; establishing a grant program to support thousands more state and local level intelligence analysts; and increasing our capacity to share intelligence across all levels of government."
No. 191: Phase out highly enriched uranium (HEU) from the civil sector
"HEU is not needed for the vast majority of civilian purposes and most reactors using HEU should be converted to operate on lowenriched fuel that cannot be used in nuclear weapons or shut down so that terrorists cannot get their hands on it. With Barack Obama and Joe Biden's leadership, the U.S. will lead the effort to remove HEU from vulnerable research reactor sites around the world, assist in the conversion process, give unneeded facilities incentives to shut down, enhance physical protection measures pending HEU removal, and blend down recovered civil HEU for use as power reactor fuel."
No. 201: Expand federal bioforensics program for tracking biological weapons
"Barack Obama and Joe Biden will expand the U.S. government's bioforensics program for tracking the source of any biological weapon so that the U.S. will be able to rapidly identify any adversary who uses a biological weapon and respond surely and swiftly."
No. 202: Create a national cyber adviser to coordinate security of electronic infrastructure
"Barack Obama and Joe Biden will declare the cyber infrastructure a strategic asset, vital to national security and the global economy, and develop and deploy systems to protect it. ... Barack Obama and Joe Biden will establish the position of national cyber advisor who will report directly to the president and will be responsible for coordinating federal agency efforts and development of national cyber policy."
No. 203: Develop a comprehensive cyber security and response strategy
"Barack Obama and Joe Biden will ensure that his administration develops a Cyber Security Strategy that ensures that we have the ability to identify our attackers and a plan for how to respond that will be measured but effective."
No. 204: Initiate a grant and training program for law enforcement to deter cyber crime
"Barack Obama and Joe Biden will also initiate a grant and training program to provide federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies the tools they need to detect and prosecute cyber crime."
No. 205: Mandate standards for securing personal data
"The federal government must partner with industry and our citizens to secure personal data stored on government and private systems. An Obama administration will institute a common standard for securing such data across industries."
No. 286: Secure the borders
Will support "additional personnel, infrastructure and technology on the border and at our ports of entry".
No. 321: Improve emergency response plans
"Will further improve coordination between all levels of government, create better evacuation plan guidelines, ensure prompt federal assistance to emergency zones, and increase medical surge capacity."
No. 364: Change FEMA insurance rules to help cities hit by multiple disasters
Will reverse a recent policy change by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) regarding insurance requirements that local governments and nonprofits must meet to be eligible for public assistance in times of disaster. "Under the new rules, entities would be ineligible to receive help from FEMA to pay an insurance deductible if FEMA has helped them before. This will have a negative impact on governments and nonprofits across the Gulf Coast that have been hit by hurricanes and disasters over the years."
No. 365: Appoint experienced disaster official to head FEMA
"Will professionalize and depoliticize the appointment of FEMA's director. Like the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the FEMA Director will have a fixed term of office to insulate him or her from politics. The FEMA Director will report directly to President Obama, serve a six-year term and will have professional emergency management experience."
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PolitiFact is a project of the St. Petersburg Times to help you find the truth in American politics. Reporters and editors from the Times fact-check statements by members of Congress, the White House, lobbyists and interest groups and rate them on our Truth-O-Meter. We’re also tracking more than 500 of Barack Obama’s campaign promises and are rating their progress on our new Obameter. >> More
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