e-News 12/4/15

• Working to Protect America
• In Search of a Presidential Strategy to Defeat ISIS
• “Iran to hit ‘jackpot’ with sanctions relief, GOP lawmaker claims”
• Helping Students Succeed
• Salute: Morristown’s Market Street Mission

Working to Protect America

The recent attacks in Paris and California served as a very painful reminder that we must always be vigilant against threats at home and abroad.

Our first line of defense in the fight against terrorism is intelligence. With the right information, we can identify threats and act to head them off. On Tuesday, the House approved the Intelligence Authorization Act for the current fiscal year.  This critically important, bipartisan legislation is designed to provide the dedicated men and women of our intelligence community the tools and authorities they need to keep Americans safe in an increasingly dangerous world.  

As you will recall, late last month, a bipartisan, veto-proof majority in the House voted for the American SAFE Act to suspend the Obama administration’s Syrian refugee resettlement program, until the Administration provides additional assurances that potential refugees can be fully "vetted."

Now we’re turning our attention to another key area of concern: the Visa Waiver Program, which enables citizens of 38 participating countries to travel to the United States and stay for up to 90 days without an entry visa.

Many people have called this program an "the Achilles Heel” that could allow residents of friendly European nations who have traveled to and from the conflict zone in Syria to enter the United States without a visa.  That number could be as high as 5,000!

It is clear that this program needs to be reformed. Even before the recent attacks in Paris, the House Homeland Security Committee Task Force on Combating Terrorist and Foreign Fighter Travel released adetailed report outlining several commonsense reforms to enhance the Visa Waiver Program’s security, including:

• Requiring all participating countries to issue smart e-passports with biometric chips;
• Requiring all participating countries to screen travelers against a new INTERPOL database of lost and stolen passports, as well as an existing criminal database, and disqualifying countries that fail to do so;
• Requiring annual assessments (currently every two years) of high-risk countries based on foreign-fighter flows, ESTA denials on terrorism grounds, terrorism database matches, and level of counterterrorism cooperation;

There’s no doubt that the Visa Waiver Program is important to international commerce.  But it is also important to our security and we must enact new measures to tighten up our entry procedures now!  

Learn more about the Visa Waiver Program here.

In Search of a Presidential Strategy to Defeat ISIS

No one can deny that many of the security challenges we face today spring from the geographic and ideological spread of ISIS.  But in all that has been written and said about ISIS since the Paris attacks, there seems to be widespread consensus on at least three points:

1. ISIS presents a serious threat to the United States.

2. The approach we have used to degrade ISIS is inadequate to meet the threat. Containment is not enough. 

3. A different approach, a greater effort is required.

In many ways ISIS is more capable than al Qaeda.  While both groups are increasing their numbers, they are by no means invincible.  Yet, when we tie our own hands with overly restrictive rules of engagement and use half-measures against them, it enhances their prestige, aids their recruitment and fundraising and generally bolsters their cause.

The other consequence of such half measures is that it adds to the doubts that friends, allies or potential allies have about our commitment and about our willingness to see the mission through. 

Clearly, a greater military effort must be undertaken and it must be run by the military without interference from the White House and the National Security Council.  If we are going to get serious against ISIS, the President needs to assign our Armed Forces a clear mission and then allow them to carry it out unhindered. 

Former Undersecretary of Defense Mike Vickers had it right when he said recently: “Whatever we would do if ISIL made good on its threat to attack Washington, D.C. and New York, we should instead do now, before the attack occurs.”

“Iran to hit ‘jackpot’ with sanctions relief, GOP lawmaker claims”

Read Guy Taylor’s story in the Washington Times here.

Helping Students Succeed

The path to a lifetime of success starts with a great education.  We have an obligation to make sure every student has the opportunity to succeed.

This week, the House gave final approval to the “Every Student Succeeds Act,” S.1177 which replaces the failed “No Child Left Behind" model with a bipartisan bill which will reduce the federal government’s role in K-12 education, prevent Washington bureaucrats from promoting “one-size-fits-all” programs like Common Core, and empower states to set their own academic standards.

On that specific note, the final House-Senate bill takes away the federal Department of Education's ability to require Common Core as a condition of federal grants.  This approach ensures the decision on whether to adopt Common Core will truly be left up to the states — as it should be.  

By preserving local control and protecting state decision-making power on Common Core, we're making things easier for school districts to do what works best for them. Each state, school district and student are different, and local administrators, teachers and parents — not the federal government — should make decisions based on what they deem best for their own students.

If the Senate and the President agree with this approach, this measure would mark the first major educational overhaul since 2002.

Read more about the final bipartisan “Every Student Succeeds Act,” S. 1177, here.

Salute: Morristown’s Market Street Mission.

Congratulations and thank you to David Scott, executive director of the Market Street Mission on Bank Street in Morristown as he was named 2015 “New Jersey Hero” by New Jersey First Lady Mary Pat Christie for his service to the mission, which “since 1889 has provided shelter and other aid to addicts, the homeless and others challenged by poverty.”

Read more in William Westhoven’s article in the Morris County Daily Record here.