Homeland Security: The week ahead

WASHINGTON, May 5 (UPI) -- Democratic primaries in Indiana and North Carolina Tuesday mean that presidential politics is likely to dominate the news agenda this week. But among all the endless talk of demographics, victory margins and delegate counts, here are a few national and homeland security events and stories that might make the inside pages.

Armed services subcommittees in the House will begin to mark up the 2009 defense authorization bill. The Senate version contains provisions that try to shift the costs of reconstruction and military operations in war-battered Iraq more on the government there, which is benefiting from a revenue windfall owing to record oil prices.

The provision enjoys bipartisan support in both chambers and is seen as likely to make the final bill, though its ultimate effect is still unclear. The White House, which has not proved shy about vetoing legislation it regards as tying its hands in Iraq, said last week only that it was reviewing the bill.

Also in the Senate bill: provisions limiting the use of contractors in war zones; provisions banning the use by U.S. agencies of what the government calls enhanced interrogations but critics insist is torture; and authorization to spend an additional $1.2 billion on healthcare for military personnel and their families that the administration had proposed collecting from patients through increased deductibles and co-pays.

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton, D-Mo., says his three priorities for the bill are "readiness, readiness, readiness." If he follows through on that, look for the House bill to authorize more money for the long-neglected and often-raided operations and maintenance account; and for greater end-strength for the Army and Marine Corps. Of course, every dime in the bill still has to be appropriated.

Watch for a statement of administration policy from the Office of Management and Budget next week, and see what GOP lawmakers close to the White House do and say at the House markups.

The primaries on Tuesday are likely to completely obscure a whole series of interesting hearings and other events that day.

May is "resilience month" for the Homeland Security Committee, which hears evidence from Policy Undersecretary Stewart Baker on Tuesday. The hearing will be webcast, and subcommittee hearings on the resilience theme will be staged throughout the month.

Also Tuesday, the House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing looking at how those notorious "enhanced interrogation" techniques came to be authorized. Last week Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., invited a slew of current and former administration luminaries to testify, including top vice presidential aide David Addington and Justice Department lawyer Daniel Levin.

Watch for any signs Monday that officials might show up, which would make headlines, but otherwise expect the hearing to be dominated by calls from witnesses invited by the majority for administration officials to face war-crimes charges.

Also Tuesday, Michael Leiter, the acting head of the National Counter-Terrorism Center, faces a confirmation hearing before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence led by Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va.

Finally Tuesday, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff will speak at a dinner hosted by the Intelligence and National Security Alliance, which represents U.S. contractors doing classified business with the nation's intelligence agencies.

Chertoff also testifies Wednesday about the emergency surge capacity of the nation's hospitals -- a vital component of any U.S. response to widespread sickness like a pandemic and an issue about which a lot of experts are gravely concerned.

But House Oversight Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., has called the hearing to examine the effect of new administration Medicaid regulations on capacity, and the hearing, alas, is likely to generate more partisan bluster than useful policy dialogue.