Critical Releases in Homeland Security: January 12, 2011

"On December 21, 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people, 189 of whom were U.S. citizens. Twelve years later, Libyan national, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, was convicted of conspiracy for planting the bomb that brought down Pan Am Flight 103, and was sent to a Scottish prison to serve a life sentence. On August 20, 2009, however, Scottish Government officials released al-Megrahi on grounds of compassion given his diagnosis of prostate cancer and a stated prognosis of three months to live. His release directly contradicted an agreement between the U.S. and U.K. governments that anyone convicted in the terrorist bombing would serve out their term in a Scottish prison. At the writing of this report, almost 16 months later, al-Megrahi is still alive. In June 2010, United States Senator Robert Menendez (NJ), joined by Senators Frank Lautenberg (NJ), Charles Schumer (NY), and Kirsten Gillibrand (NY), undertook an investigation of al-Megrahi's release. The investigation focused on two critical questions: Could medical science have supported al-Megrahi's three-month prognosis? If not, what motivated the U.K. and Scottish Governments to release al-Megrahi?"

This Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) report provides information on an inspection of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) Fraud Prevention and Investigation Branch. From the report: "As part of our inspection in assessing FEMA's progress in preventing fraud and improper payments, we learned that FEMA has identified approximately 160,000 applicants that received improper disaster assistance payments totaling approximately $643 million through the Individuals and Households Program commencing with Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. We also learned that since June 2007, FEMA has not attempted to recoup these improper payments or those from any subsequent disaster. These payments remain uncollected because your office has not given final approval of a new recoupment process. Given the volume and significance of these improper disaster assistance payments and the Administration's current effort to cut the billions of dollars wasted each year in improper payments, we recommend that you promptly authorize the collection of this debt."

"This report summarizes the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) and its major programs and regulatory requirements. It excerpts, with several additions, the SDWA chapter of CRS Report RL30798, Environmental Laws: Summaries of Major Statutes Administered by the Environmental Protection Agency, which provides summaries of the principal environmental statutes administered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This report includes the drinking water security provisions added to the SDWA by the Public Heath Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002 (P.L. 107-188). The SDWA, Title XIV of the Public Health Service Act, is the key federal law for protecting public water supplies from harmful contaminants. First enacted in 1974 and substantially amended in 1986 and 1996, the act is administered through programs that establish standards and treatment requirements for public water supplies, control underground injection of wastes, finance infrastructure projects, and protect sources of drinking water. The 1974 law established the current federal-state arrangement in which states may be delegated primary implementation and enforcement authority for the drinking water program. The state-administered Public Water Supply Supervision (PWSS) Program remains the basic program for regulating the nation's public water systems, and 49 states have assumed this authority. The last major reauthorization of the act was done through the Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments of 1996 (P.L. 104-182), which generally authorized appropriations for SDWA programs through FY2003. As with other EPA-administered statutes having expired funding authority, Congress has continued to appropriate funds for the ongoing SDWA programs. In addition to reviewing key programs and requirements of the SDWA, this report includes statistics on the number and types of regulated public water systems. It also provides tables that list all major amendments, with the year of enactment and public law number, and that cross-reference sections of the act with the major U.S. Code sections of the codified statute."