The Department of Homeland Security suffers from management and other shortfalls that threaten to undermine its anti-terrorism efforts, according to a panel of experts at a recent Senate hearing regarding the future of DHS.
Sen. Joe Lieberman, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, praised the DHS’s progress on immigration screening, aviation screening, information sharing, and preparedness and response for FEMA since Hurricane Katrina. Yet he criticized the agency’s lack of integration in information technology, acquisitions and human capital management.
Former DHS Inspector General Richard Skinner agreed with Lieberman’s assessment and said the DHS is particularly insufficient in financial management, acquisition management, IT management and grants management.
"We brought over all of the operational aspects of the 22 different agencies (that DHS consolidated), but we did not bring the management support functions to support those operations,” Skinner said. “And as a result, we’ve been digging ourselves out of a hole ever since."
Skinner suggested that DHS headquarters and its components should facilitate more collaboration and cooperation to protect the United States and advance homeland security, Skinner said. This cooperation would work best if DHS takes the matter into its own hands, instead of being mandated through legislation or oversight. Yet if this fails, Congress could step in with directives, Skinner suggested.
DHS has also struggled with creating unified efforts among its components, said former Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thad Allen. Adm. He suggested that the DHS should have a stronger link with the Director of National Intelligence and called for a domestic intelligence management function within DNI to provide that link with DHS.
"There have been several attempts to establish a robust planning and execution system that takes place through the National Operations Center on behalf of the [DHS] secretary," Allen said. "One of the problems is [it] was kind of a ‘come as you are department,’ and a lot of people stayed at the facilities where they’re at in Washington. And there was a balkanization of the facilities."
Former Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) said the intelligence function at DHS never fully developed since fusing intelligence is the job of the National Counterterrorism Center, instead of the DHS. She recommended that the DHS should restrict its intelligence function to fusing information its various parts collect and not try to gather intelligence beyond that.
Harman also questioned if DHS could improve how it packages intelligence for state and local law enforcement. Many of those agencies consider DHS reports as spam that clutters their email inboxes.
