Bipartisan Criticism of the Terror Alert System

Making the kind of bipartisan statement of concern for the good of the country that seems to be becoming increasingly rare, the Republican and Democratic leaders of the House Select Committee on Homeland Security joined in criticizing the current color-coded system of terror alerts: Lawmakers Urge Terror Alert Changes AP 12/28/03

Both Republican Christopher Cox and Democrat Jim Turner are worried about the boy-who-cried-wolf effect. "I think we always have to worry about scaring people to death," Cox said.

Thomas "says refining the alert system so that specific locations or industries are targeted will help keep people from tuning out the threat warnings when they're issued."

"We thought that over time if we continue to have this general alert system that people would begin to ignore the alert, and even states and localities and local officials would find that it would be hard to justify the increased expense," Turner said.

"Because it does cost states and local governments hundreds of thousands of dollars every time the alert level is raised, I think we owe it to local governments to be more specific when possible," he added.

The committee is considering bipartisan legislation that would make these refinements.

This is something where Congressional oversight is badly needed. I hope Congress presses for some needed changes. Perhaps more importantly, I hope they are exercising real oversight on what the justification for the alerts are and what the verifiable results are.