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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    • News

    Cruz Knocks Obama’s $3.7B Border Request as ‘Social Services Bill’

    The Daily Signal this afternoon asked Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, what he thinks of President Obama’s request for $3.7 billion in “emergency” funds – about $12 for every American  – to address the surge of children from Central America illegally crossing into the U.S. from Mexico. Cruz accused the president of selling a “social services bill” as a “border…
    Kelsey Bolar
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    • Opinion

    Steve Moore Demolishes Obama’s Argument for More Border Security Funding

    “When you look at the actual funding for border security over the last 10 years, it has more than doubled. And over the last 15  years, it’s almost tripled. So it’s not a lack of funding. It’s the fact that this administration has sort of turned a blind eye to this and in fact has…
    Stephen Moore
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    • Opinion

    Cartoon: Border Security Under President Obama

    Despite statements from past and present Obama Administration officials that the U.S. border is secure, the recent influx of thousands of illegal aliens from Central America proves otherwise.
    Glenn Foden
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    • News

    Homeland Security Secretary Won’t Say If Illegal Children Will Be Deported

    “Meet the Press” host David Gregory had a simple question for Department of Homeland Secretary Jeh Johnson: Do the children flooding the U.S. border need to be deported? What followed was a testy exchange between Gregory and Johnson. “I’m trying to get an answer,” Gregory said at one point. He eventually moved on, but not…
    Kelsey Bolar
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    • Opinion

    Obama Isn’t Prepared to Face Security Challenges

    Flip through the latest National Security Strategy and the Pentagon‘s Quadrennial Defense Review — these are the documents describing how President Obama envisions using foreign and defense policy to keep the United States safe, free and prosperous in a world that appears increasingly unfriendly to America’s interests. The words “strategic early warning” don’t figure in…
    James Carafano
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    • News

    Federal Officials Propose 8-Foot Fences to Protect Endangered Mice

    SANTA FE NATIONAL FOREST, N.M.—For more than a century, the Lucero family has grazed livestock in the majestic landscape near Fenton Lakein the Santa Fe National Forest. They started with sheep and, in the 1920s, switched to cattle. But that may all come to an end because of an endangered mouse. “You’re taking a lot…
    Rob Nikolewski
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    • News

    Obama Taps Corporate Executive to Overhaul Veterans Affairs

    President Obama will nominate former Procter & Gamble chief executive Bob McDonald as the next secretary of veterans affairs, calculating that a corporate manager and outsider can turn around the beleaguered department. If confirmed by the Senate, McDonald, a 61-year-old Army veteran, would be tasked with overcoming a scandal over long wait times at Veterans…
    Josh Siegel
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    • News

    VA Spent Millions on Solar Panels as Veterans Waited for Care

    Veterans Affairs hospitals have spent millions on solar panels while veterans waited months to see a doctor. Delayed care resulted in at least 23 deaths, according to one VA fact sheet. In Phoenix, 18 patients died while waiting for treatment, acting Veteran Affairs Secretary Sloan Gibson revealed on June 5. The VA scandal has resulted…
    Tori Richards
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    • Opinion

    Obama Administration Landmine Policy Harms U.S. National Security

    Right now, myriad crises around the globe require U.S. leadership: a radical Islamic army on the march in Iraq, chaos in Syria, Russia and China bullying neighbors, and near daily violence in Nigeria. Yet, the Obama Administration has chosen to focus its attention on landmines. The White House announced today that the U.S. will no…
    Daniel Kochis
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    • Opinion

    GAO Report: U.S. Embassies at Risk Because of Security Gaps

    Security at U.S. diplomatic posts is falling short, and Benghazi is only the most visible example. A new report on “Diplomatic Security” by the Government Accountability Office — GAO-14-655 — demonstrates the problem is systemic, leaving U.S. personnel serving overseas at unnecessary risk. At a time of rising security threats from metastasizing Al Qaeda spinoffs…
    Helle Dale
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    • Opinion

    Here’s a Crazy Idea: What About Reforming Transportation Spending Instead of Hiking Taxes?

    Americans know the drill. When Congress faces a gap between its spending wants and available money, it is quick to ask for more money, instead of fixing the spending side of the budget ledger. This time it’s Senate Finance Committee chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who has proposed a rag tag group of revenue provisions, including…
    Emily Goff
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    • Opinion

    Ex-Im Bank Isn’t Necessary for National Security

    Who needs that Export-Import Bank? There is healthy debate going on in Washington. The side that wants Washington to agree to extend the bank charter has pulled out the national security card, suggesting that the bank’s continued existence boosts our security. But they can’t provide a convincing argument that promoting the bank provides for the…
    James Carafano
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    • News

    New Mexico Officials Question Border Holding Facility

    SANTA FE, N.M. — Trying to deal with a tide of thousands of undocumented immigrants, as many of 50,000 of them children, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is about to convert a training center for the U.S. Border Patrol in the southern New Mexico town of Artesia into a detention center. But Gov. Susana…
    Rob Nikolewski
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    • Opinion

    House Intel Committee Chairman, Member Warn FCC Against Increased Cybersecurity Regulation

    On June 16, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R–MI) and committee member Mike Pompeo (R–KS) sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Tom Wheeler warning against regulatory cybersecurity measures. The lawmakers were responding to a speech Wheeler gave at the American Enterprise Institute on June 12 in which he called for a…
    Andrew Tucker
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    • Opinion

    This Innovative Education Policy Can Change the Lives of Children With Special Needs

    Erika Hartley has two sons with Autism, which means she can explain in one sentence what being able to customize their education means to her family. “If you’ve met one child with Autism,” she says, “You’ve met one child with Autism.” Fortunately, for her sons, Hunter, 11, and Jackson, 7, they live in Arizona, home…
    Lindsey Burke
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    • Opinion

    You Can’t Use the Military to Solve Every Government Problem

    “What’s the point of having this superb military that you’re always talking about if we can’t use it?” —Madeline Albright, 1993, as she argued for sending U.S. troops to Bosnia There’s an undertone to Albright’s quip, one that suggests a sharp distinction between how progressives and realists view the purpose of the people in the…
    James Carafano
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    • Opinion

    Second Chinese Military Group Identified in Cyber Attacks

    CrowdStrike, a private security technology firm, released a report last week condemning Unit 61486 of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) for cyber espionage against U.S. corporations. This report follows the Justice Department’s symbolic indictment of five Chinese military officers for similar cyber misconduct, whose crimes were detailed by Mandiant—another security technology firm—in February 2013. Both…
    Drew Tucker
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    • Opinion

    Gates Advocates Hitting the Brakes on Consequences Associated with Common Core

    Even Bill Gates is starting to have second thoughts about the consequences associated with Common Core. On Tuesday, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation— the second-largest financial backer of Common Core after the federal government— issued a letter calling for a two-year delay of the full implementation of Common Core, which is set to take…
    Brittany Corona
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    • News

    Veterans Warily Welcome Action in Congress to Cure VA’s Ills

    The head of a reform-minded veterans group today hailed Senate action to speed medical care to waiting veterans, but cautioned that a change allowing treatment at private health facilities must represent “real choice.” “Getting choice is the holy grail of this reform,” said Pete Hegseth, chief executive officer of Concerned Veterans for America. The FBI…
    Josh Siegel
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    • Opinion

    Was the California Teacher Tenure Decision Judicial Activism?

    This week, in Vergara v. California, California Superior Court Judge Rolf Treu struck down five state laws governing teacher tenure, layoffs and dismissals as unconstitutional under the California constitution. The result of this ruling is certainly good for children in California, too many of whom are stuck in classrooms with “grossly ineffective” teachers. But was…
    Elizabeth Slattery
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