Democrats Still Face Hurdles In Enacting 9/11 Panel's Ideas

"There's a whole realm of things that need to be done," Kean said. "The fact that the new speaker wants to make it a priority, I congratulate her."

Democrats have not spelled out how they intend to pay for their initiatives. In 2006, they unsuccessfully proposed $3 billion for rail security and $5 billion for first-responder communications equipment.

No one has figured out how to scan all cargo reliably in real-world settings.

"I should feel relieved, but I don't," said Carie Lemack, co-founder of Families of September 11 and head of a national security consulting firm.

Lemack said some of the commission's recommendations are relatively easy but have lacked the political backing to move forward. She cited naming a senior adviser to the president to oversee the lockdown of nuclear weapon materials worldwide and declassifying intelligence agencies' budgets.

James Jay Carafano, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, said lawmakers from both parties have signaled that they are unwilling to dispense homeland security funding based on risk, preferring the locality-based, pork-barrel funding that is popular at election time.

"What's left on the table is really, really hard and can't be legislated into existence, or really, really stupid and shouldn't be done anyway," Carafano said.

Some recommendations highlighted by Democrats are already in the works but face technical hurdles. These include efforts to put in place a border entry and exit screening system and to streamline the terrorism watch lists. A battle also looms over whether to pay for or delay Real ID, a multibillion-dollar effort to standardize state driver's licenses.

Other proposals by House Democrats, including hiring 2,000 new Border Patrol agents a year for five years and building a "virtual fence" using sensors and other technology, are already being adopted by the Bush administration.