Looking Over Your Shoulder

Today we focus on the relationship between Congress and your agency, and oversight is a big part of that relationship. Sensitive Call Center The Department of V...

Today we focus on the relationship between Congress and your agency, and oversight is a big part of that relationship.

Sensitive Call Center

The Department of Veterans Affairs has run its suicide prevention hotline for vets for about a year, and the House Veterans Affairs Health subcommittee wanted a checkup on how it’s doing. Dr. Kathyrn Power, the Director of the Center for Mental Health Services at the Department of Health and Human Services, answered some questions from the subcommittee about her view of the hotline from an outsider’s perspective.

Click to hear this portion of the hearing

Another witness at the hearing was Dr. Janet Kemp, National Suicide Prevention Coordinator for the Veterans Health Administration at the Department of Veterans Affairs. She talked with me about what the members of Congress asked her, and how the call center works.

Click to hear the interview

Cyber-insecurity, Times Three

Three new Government Accountability Office reports detail problems with the government’s preparation for cyber attacks. Those three reports were released yesterday at a House Homeland Security Committee hearing. FederalNewsRadio’s Jason Miller has more on the hearing here.

New Jersey Congressman Bill Pascrell was ready to name names and hold them accountable. He listed four names of officials at DHS that are responsible for cyber security, and asked the witnesses if their work was being tainted by politics.

One respondent to Congressman Pascrell’s question was former National Security Council senior director for national security of the Office of Cyberspace Security Paul Kurtz, now a partner at the consulting firm Good Harbor.

Real Danger in a Virtual World

Terrorists may be rehearsing attacks on U.S. landmarks inside virtual worlds that appear to the casual observer to be video games. FederalNewsRadio National Security Correspondent J.J. Green gave me some reasons why we should worry–and some reasons why we shouldn’t.

Click to hear the interview

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