#DHS Sen. Paul’s amendment does not pass…12-5 against….to cut DHS levels back to 2007
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DHS Still Hobbled By Congress; Its Mission Misunderstood: Former CIA Head Who Led DHS Transition Team
By Dan Verton
In December of 2000, John Gannon signed his name to a document that is almost prophetic in its analysis of global security trends.
From the potential impacts of a U.S. economic downturn to the various drivers of what we now know as the Arab Spring throughout the Middle East, and the rise of extremist terrorist organizations in safe-havens like Afghanistan, the National Intelligence Council’s Global Trends 2015 study warns of almost every major international security issue faced by the United States during the last 10 years. Keep reading →
Far from the “boondoggle” that some have called it, the Department of Homeland Security has made significant progress integrating 22 separate agencies and nearly 200,000 employees since its creation in 2003. But that continued upward trajectory of progress seems anything but certain if senior managers remain unable to conduct a strategic pause amid ongoing threats and security events to ensure major acquisition programs and department-wide policies are executed properly.
That’s the underlying conclusion of the most recent study released September 7 of the DHS by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress. Keep reading →
Roger Cressey can recall with great precision the moment, ten years ago, when the homeland security mission came to life out of the rubble of the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon.
“It was the magnitude and the gravity of what we were dealing with, literally when the towers were crumbling, realizing that the world had changed and that our government – our nation – had changed,” said Cressey, who served as the Deputy for Counterterrorism on the National Security Council on 9/11. Keep reading →
About This Program:
In this mini-documentary exclusive for Breaking Gov, award-winning journalist Dan Verton brings us back to the day that changed the world and traces the evolution of the homeland security mission through the eyes of three men who were present at its creation.
This is the story of the birth and evolution of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as told by the nation’s first secretary of Homeland Security, the deputy for counterterrorism on the National Security Council, and the CIA’s deputy director of intelligence, who would go on to become the first Staff Director for the House Select Committee on Homeland Security. Keep reading →
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has faced a great deal of scrutiny, both from the public and from Congressional leaders since its creation in 2003. Some have accused it of being dysfunctional, ineffective, and mismanaged, going so far as to call for the dissolution of the Department. While we should ask a great deal of the agency designated to protect us against terrorism and other threats, much of this criticism is misguided, as are recommendations to close the department.
We must face the reality that working to improve DHS is our only option. From a purely practical perspective, DHS is unlikely to be disestablished. We have no track record of closing cabinet departments, and it is unreasonable to expect Congress to assume the political risk associated with pursuing the elimination of the organization designed to protect the homeland. Most importantly, we must acknowledge that, strategically, DHS is too vital to simply do away with. Keep reading →
This article is the first of several commentaries appearing courtesy of Breaking Defense this week examining what America’s leaders should do next to secure our national security, 10 years after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
If the experiences of DHS and ODNI are any guide, the success or failure of reorganization may depend on dynamics and relationships that transcend the immediate borders of the new department or agency.
A new government enterprise does not exist in a vacuum, but must operate within a super system of sister departments, White House councils and czars, and congressional oversight
committees. While these institutional actors are rarely taken into account by those who design a new agency, they can have a profound impact on those charged with building and running the organization. Keep reading →
A few weeks ago, I was privileged to be a panelist on the panel, “Protection and the Moral Dilemma: Going Offline in the Name of Security”, the kickoff event of the DHS GFIRST summit in Nashville, Tennessee.
The panel itself included senior security experts from across the spectrum of the public sphere: DHS, the FBI, DoD, state government, and even well-known security author Winn Schwartau. Keep reading →
While in the throes of merging multiple agencies and thousands of employees nearly a decade ago, DHS and ODNI leaders became so focused on the mission — keeping Americans safe — that key management functions often fell through the proverbial cracks and ultimately weakened capabilities.
Management, it appears, is central to mission. That’s Lesson Three in a report released this week by the Partnership for Public Service and Booz Allen Hamilton detailing four lessons from the creation of and subsequent problems within the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Keep reading →