Critical Releases in Homeland Security: July 24, 2013

"The Strategic Management Plan (SMP) sets forth the Department of Defense (DoD) strategy for delivering effective business operations to support and enable the Warfighter. The objective of the SMP is to align and improve business operations across the Department's Business Functions as required by the 2008 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The SMP establishes the goals, key initiatives, outcomes, performance measures, and guiding principles for the Department's business mission area. It communicates the strategic business direction for the Department as well as the approach for assessing progress toward achieving the Department's business goals. The SMP business goals are aligned to the Department's overall strategy as outlined in the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR). The QDR goals set the strategic priorities for the Department, including a number of business and management improvements. The 2012 Defense Strategic Guidance (DSG), which reflects the President's strategic direction to the Department, reaffirmed these goals and emphasized continuing efforts 'to reduce the cost of doing business' as one of the principles that will guide DoD force structure and program development in the coming years. The Department is moving toward an integrated business environment built on 21st century capabilities, enabled by cutting-edge technologies. Reorienting the management of Defense business around cross-functional end-to-end processes enables informed enterprise-wide decisions, guides the selection of targeted investments in business capabilities, and drives interoperability, efficiency and fewer duplicative systems. The Department is transforming its business through key initiatives, including Audit Readiness, Better Buying Power (BBP), and mobile and web-enabled applications. The SMP provides a management framework to accomplish these initiatives and create an effective, yet simplified business environment."

"In May 2013, at the President's direction, the Attorney General initiated a comprehensive evaluation of the Department of Justice's policies and practices governing the use of law enforcement tools, including subpoenas, court orders, and search warrants, to obtain information or records from or concerning members of the news media in criminal and civil investigations. As part of this process, the Attorney General convened a series of meetings to solicit input from a wide range of news media stakeholders, First Amendment academics and advocates, and Members of Congress. Based on this review, the Attorney General is making significant revisions to the Department's policies regarding investigations that involve members of the news media."

"America has always been a nation of immigrants, and throughout the nation's history, immigrants from around the globe have kept our workforce vibrant, our businesses on the cutting edge, and helped to build the greatest economic engine in the world. However, America's immigration system is broken and has not kept pace with changing times. Today, too many employers game the system by hiring undocumented workers and there are 11 million people living and working in the shadow economy. Neither is good for the economy or the country. It is time to fix our broken immigration system. The President has made clear that Democrats, Republicans, and Independents in Congress should work together to enact commonsense immigration reform that includes proposals to continue to strengthen border security, create an earned path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, hold employers accountable, and bring our legal immigration system into the 21st century. Last month, the Senate passed historic legislation that is largely consistent with the President's principles for commonsense immigration reform with a strong bipartisan vote. The Senate's Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act (S. 744) represents the best chance that our country has had in years to modernize our immigration system. The President urges the House of Representatives to take action and move this bill or similar legislation forward, and stands willing to work with all parties to make sure that commonsense immigration reform becomes a reality as soon as possible. This report outlines the key benefits to the U.S. economy of passing commonsense immigration reform."

"Since the start of the 20th century, average annual temperatures across the contiguous United States have increased approximately 1.5°F (0.8°C) [...]. Recent weather conditions are no exception to this trend. July 2012 was the hottest month in the United States since record keeping began in 1895, and 2012 was the warmest year overall, marked by historic high temperatures and droughts, above average wildfires, multiple intense storms that disrupted power to millions, and multiple extreme heat waves [...]. More than 60% of the country experienced drought during the summer of 2012, including some areas of exceptional drought [...]. These trends, which are expected to continue [...], could restrict the supply of secure, sustainable, and affordable energy critical to the nation's economic growth. At least three major climate trends are relevant to the energy sector: [1] Increasing air and water temperatures [2] Decreasing water availability in some regions and seasons [3] Increasing intensity and frequency of storm events, flooding, and sea level rise[.] This report--part of the Administration's efforts to support national climate change adaptation planning through the Interagency Climate Change Adaptation Task Force and Strategic Sustainability Planning process established under Executive Order 13514 and to advance the U.S. Department of Energy's goal of promoting energy security--examines current and potential future impacts of these climate trends on the U.S. energy sector. It identifies activities underway to address these challenges and discusses potential opportunities to enhance energy technologies that are more climate-resilient, as well as information, stakeholder engagement, and policies and strategies to further enable their deployment."