Commentary published in The Rocky Mountain News

By Sen. Tom Wiens

...Recent government findings indicate that Colorado has squandered millions of dollars in taxpayer money devoted to enhancing our homeland security efforts here. Fortunately, a new bipartisan effort from the Colorado Senate provides the opportunity for the type of oversight we need to ensure the right direction for our future.

Four years have passed since then-Gov. Bill Owens announced his strategy for dispersing more than $156 million in federal funds between different state and local agencies. From the very beginning, I was an outspoken critic, acknowledging what should have been obvious: the strategy lacked sufficient checks and balances and had no vision for an end product to be produced for the people of Colorado with all of this money. Unfortunately, as millions of dollars were divided up among often unaccountable sources, my concerns fell on deaf ears as then-Senate President Joan FitzGerald dismantled the Senate Select Committee on Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness...

Read Full Column: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/jan/19/