National Security News

The Daily Signal provides reports on national and homeland security issues, including military readiness, intelligence operations, border protection, and global conflicts. Featuring news, analysis, and commentary, this section explores how security policy decisions affect America’s national defense and freedom.
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    • Opinion

    TSA Failures Point to Need for Private Airport Security

    In an exclusive scoop, ABC News is reporting that the Transportation Security Administration failed to stop undercover agents in 67 out of 70 recent probes of TSA screening. These agents carried fake weapons through checkpoints at major airports across the country and were not stopped. ABC reports that Jeh Johnson was “apparently so frustrated by…
    David Inserra
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    • News

    Senate Can’t Strike a Deal on Patriot Act, Forcing NSA Program to Expire

    Portions of the USA Patriot Act expired at midnight after the Senate failed to reach a deal. Supporters of the USA Freedom Act, legislation to amend the Patriot Act, had hoped it would serve as a compromise by striking an appropriate balance between security and civil liberties. Opponents argued it was still too intrusive. The…
    Kate Scanlon
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    • Opinion

    Military Should Focus on Solving Real-World Problems

    Over the last several years, there has been a noticeable uptick in terribly confused thinking about military matters that extends to understanding the nature of conflict, the role of military forces, and general thinking about military affairs. Sometimes the confusion emerges in the form of an identity crisis. The U.S. Army seems to have experienced…
    Dakota Wood
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    • Opinion

    Stanley McChrystal’s Accidental Exposé About the Military

    Retired Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal has penned a revealing book—but its revelations are not intentional. The combat veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan and his team of co-authors intended to author a guide on how to use small teams to infuse organizations with dynamic and adaptive leadership. Instead they deliver an accidental exposé of what is…
    James Carafano
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    • Opinion

    David Axelrod Evaluates Obama’s Handling of Racial Issues, Inner City Problems

    In my first two interviews with former Obama senior advisor David Axelrod, we talked about the growing divide among “Red” and “Blue” America and his predictions for the types of candidates and policy issues most likely to shape the 2016 presidential election. Now, in our final segment, we discuss the impact of racial tensions in places…
    Genevieve Wood
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    • News

    What the Defense Department Learned From the Ebola Crisis

    For most Americans, last year’s Ebola outbreak was a public health concern and cause for a debate over infectious disease practices, safety and travel. For West Africans, it was a real-life crisis with deaths in the thousands and desperate efforts to keep it from spreading. But for those tasked with developing the response for it…
    Leah Jessen
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    • News

    Debate Over NSA ‘Spying’ Program, Explained in Under 2 Minutes

    Congress has less than a week to decide the fate of a government surveillance program that was created after 9/11 to prevent terrorist attacks. The program, enabled by a provision under the Patriot Act, gives the National Security Agency a number of tools to fight terror, such as the ability to collect phone records in…
    Alex Anderson
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    • Opinion

    At Forum Hosted by Federal Agency, Academic Calls for Mandating Number of Women Politicians

    Earlier this month, I predicted that a scheduled hearing at the Federal Election Commission was shaping up to be nothing more than a presentation of “the goofy gender ideology and politics of the progressive left and academia.” And, oh, how right I was. The May 12 forum on “Women in Politics” was organized by FEC…
    Hans von Spakovsky
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    • Opinion

    Why Do Politicians Want to End a Program That Actually Works?

    It’s hard to say which is more galling: when politicians want to extend the life of a program that doesn’t work, or when they want to pull the plug on one that does. A prime example of the latter: the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. It allows children from low-income families to attend the school of…
    Ed Feulner
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    • Opinion

    Obama’s Dangerous Thinking About Climate Change and National Security

    The White House has released a new report entitled “The National Security Implications of a Changing Climate,” essentially a summary of the administration’s view that climate change is a primary threat to the nation’s security. President Obama made the issue a central feature of his commencement speech at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. “Climate change…
    Dakota Wood
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    • Opinion

    Senate Financial Reform Bill Anything But a Partisan Effort

    The U.S. House has introduced—and even passed—several bills during the past few years aimed at reforming financial regulations, but the Senate has lagged far behind. So it is a positive sign that Senate Banking Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R–AL) introduced the Financial Regulatory Improvement Act of 2015. The Committee approved the bill today, 12-10, along…
    Norbert Michel
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    • Opinion

    Lawmakers Had 10 Months to Fix Broken Transportation Funding. They Didn’t Do Anything.

    Another day, another punt on important policy matters by members of Congress. Faced with a May 31st deadline, lawmakers’ latest “fix” for highway funding—a two-month extension of current policy—comes after members had given themselves ten months to devise a long-term solution. To almost no one’s surprise, the ten months flew by without a whisper of…
    Michael Sargent
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    • News

    Should the NSA ‘Spying’ Program Be Illegal? What 2016 Contenders Say.

    Should the U.S. government continue to capture and hold massive amounts of telephone and Internet data as a way to thwart possible terrorists? Or should it be harder for government officials to detect patterns in who suspects communicate with? That decision may be a worthy of a president, but only five of nearly 20 candidates…
    Ken McIntyre
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    • News

    Jeb Hensarling: Boeing’s Threat to Move American Jobs Overseas If Ex-Im Bank Ends Is ‘A Bit of Bluster’

    Following reports that one of the Export-Import Bank’s biggest beneficiaries would move overseas if the agency’s charter expired, the leader of the House Financial Services Committee today spoke out against the claims, calling them a “bit of bluster.” Speaking to reporters at a press conference on the Export-Import Bank today, House Financial Services Chairman Jeb…
    Melissa Quinn
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    • Opinion

    Cartoon: Washington’s Transportation Spending

    Heritage's Michael Sargent wrote about the Highway Transit Fund earlier this week: Transportation funding could hit a dead-end at the end of the month. On May 31, the Highway Trust Fund’s authorization to pay for the nation’s highway and mass transit projects will expire. Even worse, the fund is running a $13 billion cash flow…
    Glenn Foden
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    • Opinion

    Ignore Politicians Saying Amtrak Crash Is Proof More Funding Is Needed. We First Need to Know More.

    On Tuesday night, an Amtrak train travelling on the Northeast Corridor crashed near Philadelphia, killing at least seven and injuring over 200 others. The tragic derailment occurred on Amtrak’s most-travelled line. Our prayers are with the passengers and their families, as well as the rescue team that was dispatched to the scene. It is still unknown…
    Michael Sargent
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    • Opinion

    How Faulty Government Forecasts Make Social Security Look More Secure Than It Is

    Lawmakers rely on projections from federal agencies, such as the Social Security Administration, the Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation to assess the current path of the federal budget and how alternative policies could affect that path. That is why a recent study showing the Social Security actuaries have consistently overstated Social…
    Rachel Greszler
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    • News

    ‘Wasted Seat’: Chamber of Commerce Official Takes to Twitter to Rip GOP Congressman on Ex-Im Bank Stance

    The intensifying debate over the Export-Import Bank’s future spilled over to Twitter yesterday after a top official with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce took to the social media site to criticize Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., for his opposition to the contested agency. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is one of the bank’s most vocal supporters,…
    Melissa Quinn
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    • Opinion

    How to Make It Easier for the Pentagon to Buy Weapons

    House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, has done something well-nigh unthinkable on Capitol Hill: He has filed a bill to cut red tape. Thornberry’s goal is to make the military’s acquisition process more efficient, but his approach—while intuitive for most people—goes against the grain of “normal” congressional problem solving, which typically tries to increase efficiency…
    Brian Slattery
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    • Opinion

    Hourly Compensation Has Grown By 69% Since 1972

    Have average wages for American workers grown since 1972? Absolutely—and only a reliance on measures with well-documented flaws can show otherwise. First, look around you: Americans at all income levels own more cars, have more air-conditioned homes, travel more, are more likely to attend college, and live longer than they did in the 1970s. Reliable…
    Salim Furth
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