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

    Why Washington Shouldn’t Control Transportation Decisions

    Predictably, President Barack Obama’s 2016 budget request calls for higher taxes to partially finance a $4-trillion spending tsunami. One of the more senseless tax hikes would fall on multinational businesses and is sought to pay for a transportation budget more lavish than necessary. It’s baffling why Obama would propose this tax on businesses’ foreign income,…
    Emily Goff
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    • News

    Boehner: House ‘Has Done Its Job,’ Homeland Security Funding Up to Senate Democrats

    House Speaker John Boehner said today that if funding for the Department of Homeland Security expires on Feb. 27, then the responsibility lies with Senate Democrats. During an appearance on “Fox News Sunday,” Boehner, R-Ohio, said he is “certainly” prepared to allow the agency to shut down because Senate Democrats “would be to blame.” “The House has done…
    Kate Scanlon
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    • Opinion

    Cartoon: The Fight Over Department of Homeland Security Funding

    From Daily Signal senior contributor Genevieve Wood's column earlier this week: Are Senate Republicans caving? House Republicans successfully passed a bill that funds the Department of Homeland Security, but ensures President Obama’s amnesty, engineered in an executive action in November, won’t be funded. Senate Republicans have tried three times to bring the bill up for…
    Glenn Foden
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    • News

    Conservatives ‘Aren’t Scared’ to Hold Their Ground on Homeland Security Bill

    A group of conservative members of Congress are urging Senate Republicans to stand their ground in the high-stakes standoff with Democrats over funding the Department of Homeland Security and rolling back President Obama’s executive actions on immigration. “I would strongly encourage … Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell hold the line on this,” said Rep. Mark…
    Kelsey Bolar
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    • Opinion

    Abigail Fisher Asks Supreme Court to Review Racial Preferences … Again

    This week, Abigail Fisher asked the Supreme Court to review her case against the University of Texas at Austin for race-based discrimination for a second time. Students who graduate in the top 10 percent of Texas high schools are automatically admitted to all state-funded schools, and remaining applicants, such as Fisher, receive a “holistic review”…
    Elizabeth Slattery
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    • Opinion

    GAO: High-Risk Gaps Remain in U.S. Cybersecurity

    The current state of the U.S. government’s cybersecurity is in critical need of improvement according to the “High-Risk” report released yesterday by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The GAO found serious problems with the way that the Administration and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are addressing cybersecurity as well as the protection of personally…
    Jennifer Guthrie
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    • Opinion

    Obama’s National Security Strategy Favors Wishful Thinking Over Reality

    Do more with less. That is the theme of the 2015 National Security Strategy President Obama released last Friday. The president’s vision for American diplomatic and military engagement naively envisages an America capable of responding to a growing list of threats with shrinking forces. The Obama administration consistently has argued this approach is realistic. But…
    Max Meizlish
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    • News

    How This Phony CIA Agent Pulled Off a ‘Scam’ to Impose Environmental Regulations on Americans

    Remember the EPA bureaucrat who got caught receiving $900,000 in pay without working because he claimed he also was employed by the CIA? According to a report from the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, the man, former climate policy expert John Beale, “retired” when questions arose about his spotty attendance and expense records. Only he…
    Kevin Mooney
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    • Opinion

    Why Are Democrats Blocking Homeland Security Funding Bill?

    We have heard this story before: A funding deadline is approaching and Congress must act quickly to pass a bill to address the issue. In a twist, the chamber continuously labeled by the left as filled with “obstructionists,” passes a bill that simply funds the program in question. All should be in agreement that this…
    Gerren McHam
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    • Opinion

    Not Much Security in Obama’s National Security Strategy

    Today, the Obama Administration released its new National Security Strategy (NSS), replacing its predecessor that was issued in May 2010. As the top national-level document framing the president’s approach to national security, it must necessarily address the range of issues that affect the United States’ core interests, to include economic, foreign policy, and physical security…
    Dakota Wood
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    • Opinion

    Support Family-Friendly, Economically-Wise Policies—Not Transportation Pork or Dependency

    Is Obama’s new federally-funded infrastructure package the key to strengthening our nation’s families? That’s the argument of W. Bradford Wilcox of the American Enterprise Institute and Robert Lehrman of the Urban Institute in their essay “How to Revive the American Dream in Blue-Collar America.” It’s a misguided policy prescription, the fruit of a commitment to…
    Ryan T. Anderson
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    • Opinion

    Obama’s National Security Strategy Is Weak and Underwhelming

    President Obama’s new national security strategy will do little to reassure America’s allies or intimidate America’s enemies. Today, the White House unveiled a document poorly suited to the challenges faced by the world’s superpower, which are mounting in the Middle East, Europe, Asia and Africa. At a time when American global leadership is increasingly being…
    Nile Gardiner
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    • News

    County Sheriffs Push Back Against Homeland Security’s ‘Not-So Veiled Threat’

    Hundreds of miles from the nation’s capital, local sheriffs are feeling reverberations from Congress’ fight over Department of Homeland Security funding. This week, Secretary Jeh Johnson delivered what one sheriff views as a “not-so veiled threat” on what could happen if an agreement isn’t reached. Johnson’s statement, released Tuesday, explains why Congress needs to pass…
    Melissa Quinn
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    • Opinion

    Congressional Oversight of the DHS: Time for a Change

    What happens when a federal agency must answer to over 100 different congressional committees and subcommittees? Duplication, contradiction, inefficiency—and more duplication. That has been the fate of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) since its creation in 2002 following 9/11. Congress created the DHS from 22 different agencies or parts of agencies that each had…
    Jennifer Guthrie
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    • Opinion

    What’s Really Happening: Democrats Are Blocking Homeland Security Funding

    The headline in one Washington newspaper read: “Senate Dems block legislation reversing immigration actions.” That’s one way to see it. A more accurate headline would have been: “Senate Democrats block debate over legislation funding the Department of Homeland Security.” The latter is exactly what all 44 Senate Democrats (and two Independents) did Tuesday and again…
    Genevieve Wood
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    • News

    Why Won’t Obama Use the Words ‘Islamic Extremism’? Watch What This Democrat Says

    In a recent interview with Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, was asked why President Obama avoids the phrase “Islamic extremism.” Gabbard, an Iraq War veteran, said, “If you are at war, which we are, you have to know who your enemy is in order to defeat them.” She criticized Secretary of…
    Thaleigha Rampersad
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    • News

    Children of Fallen Veterans Get the Surprise of Their Life From NFL’s MVP

    It is a surprise they will never forget. Aaron Rodgers surprises fallen veterans' children in latest #ItsAaron video http://t.co/KrvfZDj3RO pic.twitter.com/4iiZVqiP9L — Green Bay Press-Gazette (@gbpressgazette) January 28, 2015 Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, this season’s NFL most valuable player, created the #ItsAaron video campaign to shine a light on organizations and people who are…
    Thaleigha Rampersad
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    • News

    ‘Clock Is Ticking’: Homeland Security Chief Warns Congress to Fund His Agency

    Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson urged Congress today to stop using his agency’s budget as “political football,” warning that without more funding soon, it would make the job of securing the border more difficult. "The clock to Feb. 27 is ticking," he said in a speech at the Wilson Center in Washington, referring…
    Josh Siegel
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    • Opinion

    Senate Hearing: Four Surface Transportation Policies Worth Knowing About

    The latest bailout of the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) expires at the end of May, so the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee called a hearing to discuss the reauthorization of the federal highway and transit programs funded through the trust fund. Conspicuously absent from the discussion were calls to eliminate wasteful spending in reliable…
    Emily Goff
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    • Opinion

    Information Sharing a Must for Cybersecurity

    Last week, the White House maintained that it would veto the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, a bill proposing cybersecurity information sharing between the private sector and the U.S. government, if it reached the President. While the bill was introduced by Ranking Member of the House Intelligence Committee Dutch Ruppersberger (D–MD) and has bipartisan…
    Jennifer Guthrie
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