A National Vetting Center directed by President Donald Trump on Tuesday that will be focused on better integrating data held within various national security agencies about individual terrorists and other and other bad individuals that may seek to enter the U.S. will consolidate existing screening centers across government, Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Elaine Duke said on Wednesday.
The National Vetting Center, called the NVC, would be housed within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and led by a full-time senior employee appointed by the department’s secretary.
The “intent” of the NVC is to consolidate “some” of the organizations that currently do this vetting, but exactly what will be consolidated hasn’t been decided, Duke told Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), ranking member on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, saying “the details are to be worked out.” McCaskill said there are six or seven “things” in government already purposed toward this vetting.
“We are looking at reducing the need for all those stand alones by having a multi-agency presence” as part of the NVC, Duke said. She said that “What we’re looking for is having intelligence better available for vetting and for law enforcement people. That’s one of the biggest vulnerabilities right now, is the difficulty in law enforcement in vetting personnel to get intelligence information. That’s one of the problems we’re trying to solve.”
McCaskill reeled off a list of existing federal screening centers and related databases currently used to vet for potential terrorists and criminals, including the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center (TSC) and National Crime Information Center, the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the DHS National Targeting Center. In addition to these screening centers, these agencies maintain a number of databases used for various kinds of vetting, including of terrorists and criminals.
Duke appeared before the Senate panel, which was examining the need for a bill to reauthorize DHS. The House passed a DHS authorization bill last July.
Some related databases include the NCTC’s Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, better known as TIDE, the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB), and the State Department’s Consular Lookout and Support System (CLASS) and Consular Consolidated Database, McCaskill said. TIDE, which is the government’s central database of known or suspected terrorists, feeds a number of other databases throughout the government, including the TDSB, CLASS, and others such as the DHS No Fly List meant to weed out terrorists attempting to fly to the U.S.
The presidential directive says the existing databases would support the NVC.
“I’m going to be cranky if it’s just an add-on,” a skeptical McCaskill said of the NVC. “If you don’t get rid of some of these, it’s going to drive me nuts.” A little later, she said, “I have a bad feeling this is just going to be an add-on and just another layer of complexity and overlap and frankly with still gaps in the system.”
“It will drive me nuts too,” Duke replied. She added that the NVC will be more efficient than the status quo and allow for information to be shared faster.
A statement Tuesday evening by White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said the current federal system for vetting individuals that want to enter the U.S. is “ad hoc,” adding that the NVC will provide a “central location” for vetting activities.
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen in a statement on Tuesday said, “As part of the president’s efforts to raise the global bar for security and protect Americans, we’ve put in place tougher vetting and tighter screening for all individuals seeking to enter the United States. The National Vetting Center will support unprecedented work by DHS and the entire U.S. intelligence community to keep terrorists, violent criminals, and other dangerous individuals from reaching our shores.”
National Security Presidential Memorandum-9 gives DHS 180 days to craft an implementation plan for the creation of the NVC, which can’t begin operations until the plan is approved by the president. The plan will include a resourcing strategy and address the relationship of the NVC to existing organizations like the NCTC and TSC. The memorandum directs federal agencies to give the NVC “access to relevant biographic, biometric, and related derogatory information for its use to the extent permitted by and consistent with applicable law and policy.”
The memorandum also establishes a National Vetting Governance Board that will serve as the lead federal interagency forum for the national vetting enterprise.