First of the First 100 Hours

After today, I don't want to hear anymore about Republicans being the stronger party on National Security.  That's because House Democrats are opening the "First 100 Hours" by passing the many security reforms recommended by the 9/11 Commission, but ignored by the Republican 109th Congress and President Bush.

A more complete list from the House Democrats is at the bottom of this post, but some of the highlights include: more homeland security grants for at-risk states, mandatory air cargo screening, overseas port scanning for containers heading to US ports, and the creation of a new system of anti-nuclear proliferation sanctions against individuals and the governments that do business with them.  Rather then highlights, maybe I should have called this list the "obvious steps that should have already been taken to protect America."

There are criticisms of this package, but most of them are that the the steps are actually too aggressive and may run into opposition in the Senate:

"It's a very aggressive proposal, more aggressive than I would have thought," Greenberger said. "I wouldn't be optimistic that it will all make it through the Senate, but I'm surprised it got this far."

Given the choice between being over-aggressive on homeland security and more inertia, I'm glad that House Democrats are going all out and replacing empty conservative rhetoric with bold legislative action.