Twenty-five years after the September 11 attacks, House Homeland Security Chairman Andrew Garbarino is warning that the greatest danger may not only be the threats America can see, but the ones government agencies fail to connect in time. Garbarino, who was a high school senior when the towers fell, says Congress must stop behaving like a fire department that only arrives after the building is already burning and instead make prevention a permanent national-security priority. His warning comes as the country marks another anniversary of an attack whose consequences continue to claim lives. The 9/11 Commission previously identified intelligence “stovepipes” and failures to share information as major weaknesses before the attacks.
CONGRESS CANNOT KEEP LEARNING THE SAME LESSON AFTER EVERY TRAGEDY ATTACK
Garbarino’s argument is painfully simple: national security should not become Congress’ favourite emergency subject only after Americans have been killed. He wants lawmakers to focus on identifying threats before they become headlines, rather than waiting for another catastrophe before everyone suddenly discovers that warnings existed somewhere inside a government filing cabinet.
The satire almost writes itself. America spent years after 9/11 saying “never again,” yet the chairman is now warning lawmakers not to become so comfortable with that promise that they forget why it was made. The 9/11 Commission found that agencies had difficulty connecting intelligence across organisational boundaries, a problem that helped prevent critical pieces of information from being assembled into a complete picture before the attacks.
GARBARINO: THE ATTACK ENDED IN 2001 — THE HEALTH CONSEQUENCES DID NOT
Perhaps the most sobering part of the anniversary is that 9/11 remains a living national-health crisis. The CDC says more than 96,000 people have been diagnosed with physical or mental health conditions resulting from exposure to the dust, smoke, debris and trauma of the attacks. The World Trade Center Health Program now serves nearly 150,000 members across all 50 states and territories and nearly every congressional district.
That means the famous phrase “never forget” has acquired a medical meaning that goes far beyond ceremonies, flags and speeches. New illnesses continue to emerge decades later, while research published in 2026 found that participation in the World Trade Center Health Program was associated with lower overall mortality among the responders studied. Congress also secured long-term funding for the programme earlier this year, an important development given the continuing health burden.
For Garbarino, the lesson is therefore bigger than remembering what happened on September 11, 2001. It is about refusing to wait for another tragedy before government starts connecting intelligence, anticipating threats and protecting the people it has promised to protect. Twenty-five years later, the question is no longer whether America remembers 9/11; it is whether the country can remember its lessons before the next warning becomes another anniversary. Watch OGM News for future updates on this important national-security story.
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