The 9/11 Commission Report, written by five Republican and five Democratic members, received praise from the families of the victims of Sept. 11 for its investigation of how the attacks took place. National security experts and leaders of both political parties supported the 41 recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Report, which represent a comprehensive plan to prevent future attacks. Unfortunately, five years after the attacks, most of the 9/11 Commission's recommendations remain on paper and America remains at risk.

The need for action is real. The war in Iraq seemed to divert the attention of the Bush administration away from commission recommendations on denying terrorists safe haven by securing Afghanistan, strengthening ties with European allies and building bridges to the Muslim world. A depleted treasury and ideological stubbornness seemed to keep the Republican congressional leadership of Dennis Hastert and Tom Delay from putting resources into securing our borders and preparing first responders.

In December of 2005, the 9/11 Commissioners graded the performance of the U.S. government in fulfilling the 9/11 Commission recommendations. Of the 41 recommendations for action, the federal government received 12 D's, 9 C's and 5 F's. Even after the Intelligence Reform Act of 2004, Congress' attempt at meeting the recommendations, clearly more than half of the 9/11 Commission's plan for protecting America remained incomplete.

Recognizing this state of affairs, the new Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi has put forward as one of the Democrats' first initiatives back in power, the “9/11 Commission Fulfillment Act” as a way to close the security gaps left open since the attacks Sept. 11. The 9/11 Commission Fulfillment Act tries to achieve three broad goals; reforming the Department of Homeland Security, preventing terrorists from getting weapons of mass destruction and preventing the rise of future terrorists. Now that the Democrats have power, how does their plan for protecting America measure up?

The Department of Homeland Security is charged with the most important mission in government, protecting our nation, yet it has not been given the money or manpower to succeed. The results of short funding and short staffing the DHS have been public and embarrassing. In the air, passenger planes still fly with cargo under seats that is unscreened for explosives.

On the seas, millions of cargo containers enter our ports essentially unscreened for radiation or nuclear devices. On the ground, our land borders remain wide open and we have no system in place to monitor who enters or exits America. Here at home first responders still do not have the equipment they need to talk with one another at a disaster site, and weakness that contributed to the deaths of many brave firefighters and police on 9/11. Perhaps most telling of all, an American city was lost during Hurricane Katrina. The poor response of federal officials to a disaster with 48 hours warning is a sobering wake-up call that years after 9/11, the federal government is not ready to respond to a catastrophic terrorist attack on a U.S. city.

The Democratic bill plans to reform the Department of Homeland Security by ending the pork-barrel distribution of homeland security grants and instead sending funds to states and localities based on potential treats and vulnerabilities. They propose mandates that would screen all cargo on passenger planes to detect explosives and screen all cargo containers before they land on American shores. The bill also proposes more funding for training and equipping first responders.

To prevent terrorists from acquiring weapons of mass destruction, the Democrats call for “accelerating” the pace of securing loose nuclear material across the globe and working with allies to break up nuclear material smuggling networks across the globe.

To prevent the rise of future terrorists, Speaker Pelosi has embraced a long-range plan to positively engage the one billion people of the Islamic world by supporting secular primary and secondary education, and grants to support the voices of moderation in the Islamic world. The Democrats approach seems to be that to win the war on terror, America must strengthen our traditional alliances while building bridges to the Islamic world in an effort to deny al-Qaida a new generation of supporters.

The Democratic plan goes a long way toward meeting the original goals of the 9/11 Commission, which were to target the terrorists, protect the homeland and prevent the rise of future terrorists. It is a much-needed effort to refocus a U.S. government long diverted by the war in Iraq back to the goal of defeating the terrorist designs of al-Qaida. However to truly succeed, Speaker Pelosi will need to do more than pass a bill on homeland security. She will need to work with congressional Republicans to build a lasting coalition to fully fund homeland security efforts. She will need to work with President Bush to encourage the federal bureaucracy to meet the many deadlines sure to be imposed to meet the ambitious goals of this legislation. This new Congress will need to change the partisan tone in Washington and rebuild the sense of purpose when we all stood united after the attacks of Sept. 11. The 9/11 Fulfillment Act is a good first step on the long road we must all travel to protect America in the 21st century.

Scott Bates is former senior policy advisor for the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee. He is vice- president of the Center for National Policy, a nonpartisan think tank based in Washington, D.C. Bates is a resident of Stonington.