WASHINGTON, Feb. 2 (UPI) -- The U.S. Congress received the first Quadrennial Homeland Security Review, a document defining homeland security and providing a budgetary blueprint.
The document defines homeland security as including hazards beyond terrorism and provides a view on how the government's approach to homeland security continues to embrace more than a focus on terrorism, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.
The Post obtained a copy of the review.
"This study has given them (government officials and lawmakers) a road map for how they are going to think through tough problems," such as department human resources, analytical capabilities and research priorities, said James Jay Carafano, a homeland security expert at the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation.
Congress mandated the strategic review in 2007 and modeled it after the Quadrennial Defense Review, another congressionally mandated effort directing the Defense Department to refine strategies and budgets against changing threats every four years.
The review focuses on terrorism as the key threat, defining homeland security as "a concerted national effort to ensure a homeland that is safe, secure, and resilient against terrorism and other hazards ... ."
The review lists five missions backed by 14 goals, including preventing terrorism and enhancing security, securing U.S. borders, enforcing immigration laws, securing cyberspace and ensuring a vibrant response to disasters.
While preventing terrorism is the cornerstone of homeland security, the review identified hazards such as cyberattacks, pandemics, natural disasters, illegal trafficking and transnational crime.
