Homeland Security

Policy Priorities for 2008

• Develop, analyze, and promote public policies that affect Chamber members and impact the nation's critical infrastructure and key resources system?85% of which is owned and operated by the private sector.
• Continue emphasizing to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that the private sector needs better defined, more specific, action-oriented information to be effective.
• Continue alerting businesses of all sizes of the need to protect their electronic networks. Focus increasing attention on the threat that a foreign intelligence service or a well-supported terrorist group could pose to the nation's vital infrastructure or a business' computer system.

• Continue to urge DHS and Congress to strike the right balance between enhanced border and port security and the smooth flow of legitimate trade and travel expected in our just-in-time global economy.

• Advance a modernized export control process that is efficient, predictable, timely, and supports both U.S. competitiveness and national security.

• Continue convening business preparedness events with state chambers, business leaders, DHS and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials to affect government pandemic planning and strategies.

• Continue working to enhance the predictability of Guard and Reserve mobilization and demobilization.