Editorial: Just not making the grade

Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2005 | 9:37 a.m.

On Monday the members of the 9/11 Commission issued stinging criticism of the federal government's failure to take appropriate steps to prevent another terrorist attack against the United States. Members of the commission, which formally disbanded after issuing their report in the summer of 2004, handed out a report card on how the federal government has done in implementing its 41 recommendations. In a nutshell, the progress has been abysmal. The commissioners gave five F's, 10 D's and two "incompletes."

The five F's are in these areas: failing to ensure that homeland security funding goes to those cities most at risk, not improving radio communication among emergency agencies, not adequately prescreening airline passengers, the continued secrecy regarding the size of America's intelligence budget and a lack of clear guidelines for detaining terrorism suspects.

"If my children were to receive this report card, they would have to repeat a grade," said Tim Roemer, one of the Democrats on the bipartisan commission.

Sure, making sweeping changes as proposed by the 9/11 Commission wasn't going to be easy. In one area alone -- determining which cities and states receive anti-terrorism funding -- parochial interests often arise in Congress. But it is awful that pork-barrel politics are interfering with what truly is a national security issue -- where it is best to spend money on homeland security. There is no reason why states such as Wyoming should be receiving more anti-terrorism funding per capita than California and New York.

"We shouldn't need another wake-up call," said Thomas Kean, the 9/11 Commission's chairman and ex-Republican governor of New Jersey. "We believe that the terrorists will strike again -- so does every responsible expert that we have talked to. And if they do, and these reforms that might have prevented such an attack have not been implemented, what will our excuse be?"

We can only hope that the report card and the no-nonsense talk by the the 9/11 Commission will shame Congress and President Bush into working together and taking real action. Our national security depends on it.