In a Nov. 17 letter to DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff, the two senators expressed concern that, one year after Hurricane Katrina tore into the Gulf coast, DHA has done little to bolster "situational awareness" during disasters. As a result, first responders are most likely still unable to provide key DHS personnel with a coherent picture of what's happening on the ground during a disaster.

Lieberman and Collins said they are looking into whether the systems that have been implemented were "ineffectively introduced, under-utilized, and/or may lack the necessary protocols to develop accurate situational awareness reports."

Collins is currently the chairwoman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and Lieberman is the committee's ranking Democrat. Lieberman will take over as chairman of the committee when the new Congress takes office in January.

According to the senators, one of the department's major initiatives to bolster information sharing after the Katrina disaster, the Common Operating Picture (COP) database, is not being fully utilized.

"Briefings from DHS staff and reports from the DHS Inspector General indicate that the Homeland Security Information Network (HSIN), of which COP is a part, is hugely under-utilized," the senators said in the letter. "While 18,000 first responders have registered for the network, less than 6% regularly use it, and DHS has done little to inform first responders about the COP or to train them how to use it."