DHS: Still A Mess

by hilzoy

From the Washington Post:

"Hobbled by inadequate funding, unclear priorities, continuing reorganizations and the absence of an overarching strategy, the U.S. Homeland Security Department is failing to achieve its mission of preventing and responding to terrorist attacks or natural disasters, according to a comprehensive report by the Government Accountability Office.

The highly critical report disputes recent upbeat assessments by the Bush administration by concluding that DHS has failed to make even moderate progress toward eight of 14 internal government benchmarks more than four years after its creation. (...)

The GAO states that after the largest government merger in more than half a century, DHS met fewer than half of its performance objectives, or 78 of 171 directives identified by President Bush, Congress and the department's own strategic plans. The department strongly disputed the report.

In one of its harshest conclusions, the 320-page document states that DHS has made the least progress toward some of the fundamental goals identified after the 2001 attacks and again after Hurricane Katrina in August 2005: improving emergency preparedness; capitalizing on the nation's wealth and scientific prowess through "Manhattan project"-style research initiatives; and eliminating bureaucratic and technical barriers to information-sharing. (...)

Still, where prior studies focused on DHS's many organizational problems -- leading Chertoff to direct the department to sharpen its focus after he took office in February 2005 -- the report indicates it still has difficulty carrying out policy decisions and setting priorities.

DHS met only five of 24 criteria for emergency preparedness, failing to implement a national response plan or develop a program to improve emergency radio communications. The department met just one of six science and technology goals, such as developing research and development plans and assessing emerging threats; and two of 15 computer integration targets, the report says.

Moderate progress, which the GAO defined as taking action on more than half of identified goals, was made in only five of 14 areas -- immigration enforcement, aviation, land and transportation security; securing critical facilities such as bridges, power plants and computer networks, and property management -- and substantial progress in just one, maritime and port security. (...)

"It's a very damning report," said Michael Greenberger, director of the University of Maryland's Center for Health and Homeland Security and a former Clinton Justice Department official. "If you look at these grades, nearly one-third fall into the lowest category, and among those third are critically important, almost foundational tasks upon which the others rest.""

The government's miserable response to Hurricane Katrina showed us exactly how ill-prepared we are to deal with another terrorist attack. There was no excuse for not doing better then, three years after 9/11. There is even less excuse today.

Comments

[Mike Schilling]

The GAO states that after the largest government merger in more than half a century, DHS met fewer than half of its performance objectives, or 78 of 171 directives identified by President Bush, Congress and the department's own strategic plans

But those are old benchmarks that don't take the context of the current situation into account.

[nick]

It's almost hard to believe that Chertoff's name is being seriously bandied about as a possible AG. And then you remember who he is replacing ...

[cleek]

DHS met fewer than half of its performance objectives, or 78 of 171 directives identified by President Bush, Congress and the department's own strategic plans

time for a No Agency Left Behind plan. any agency that fails to meet its goals will have its federal aid cut. that'll teach em!

[faahope]

The DHS has also forgotten to inforce the Hoemland Security Act of 2002, Presidenital Directives 7&8, the NIPP 0f 2006 on its own Federal Agency's like the FAA

[Free Lunch]

Funny how the Pentagon and Homeland Security can go to the effort of explaining why they don't have to do their job, but cannot bother to do their job.

Keep at it GAO

[rea]

Well, this does give us some insight into why the adminstration is optimistic about its Iraqi counterpart--after all, the Bush adminstration can't seem to meet benchmarks, either.

[Anonymouse]

Wow, for a second I thought this was a mislabeled post about the Iraqi government.

[John Thullen]

Cleek:

"Time for a No Agency Left Behind plan; any agency that fails to meet its goals will have its federal aid cut. That'll teach 'em."

That dovetails nicely with Grover Norquist's and his knee-padded pledges' plan to defund all agencies that MEET their goals. We must do more with less; in fact, if we can get it for free, then we'll have Larry Craig's idea of a budget.

By the way, as long as Homeland Security clears all airport restrooms of needy tap-dancers, I feel good to go ...... yeah, that's about right.

What folks don't know is that Osama Bin Laden was in the stall to the OTHER side of the cop in Minnesota tapping out the message: "If we pin down enough U.S. tax dollars in Iraq, my contacts in the White House can cut reimbursement rates for Medicaid.... Dick? Is that you?"

That's more than three taps. We need to raid the Arthur Murray Dance Studios and make sure suspicious people haven't been requesting dancing lessons with no intention of appearing in a musical.

[Bernard Yomtov]

The truly annoying point here is that lots of DHS responsibilities, especially in the disaster response area, are just a matter of organization and planning. There are no great strategic or political decisions to be made.

You have to figure out how to do things like deliver food, water, and medical supplies to affected areas, how to provide shelter and emergency medical care, etc., and do all this when transportation is difficult. How, sometimes, to evacuate large numbers of people.

I'm not claiming this is easy. I am claiming that a serious, well-staffed agency that devotes intelligent effort to this task can do it. And I also claim that this is an important government function. Natural disasters occur, and when they do lots of lives are at stake and lots of people need emergency assistance. Making sure there is an effective response is not some minor bureaucratic task.

[Anon]

This is probably why Chertoff's name is now off the AG short list. Not because Chertoff has failed at DHS (failure has never been an impediment to working for the Bush administration), but because his confirmation hearing would call too much attention to how ill-protected the country is.

[togolosh]

The government's miserable response to Hurricane Katrina showed us exactly how ill-prepared we are to deal with another terrorist attack.

I think you're assuming that the government *wanted* an effective response to Katrina. I don't think they did. Driving large numbers of primarily democratic voters out of Louisiana benefits the GOP, a fact that cannot have been lost on Karl Rove.

[Armando]

Think of government as a hedge fund, and its actual results are then "marking it to market".

[Hartmut]

togolosh, a cynic would say the same about a new terrorist attack. Ask "we are just one bomb away from our goals" Addington.

[Ugh]

OT - WTF is this headline blaring that bin Laden will "address the american people" on the sixth anniverary of 9/11 I see right now on CNN and Fox sites?

[maryo]

I am a volunteer firefighter in a rural community. The only effects that we have experienced from DHS are: t-shirts with their logo, a few "training" sessions that make no sense and new fire gear that is so cheap that most of us have gone back to our old gear. We have no idea who heads up DHS in our area because they keep changing.

Oh yeah, our radios still suck.

[Davis X. Machina]

Only the Coasties came out of that mess looking remotely decent, but I guess that just means it takes more than four years to destroy 200 years of tradition....

[sglover]

This write-up is all wrong. In its primary mission, disbursing largesse to Lockheed and SAIC and Booz-Allen and the usual gang of Beltway "entrepreneurs", DHS excels. Travel to DC sometime, and you can savor all the garrison-state sector money sloshing around.

[cbooker]

For what it's worth, the recent report on Iraq is that it was meeting only 3 of its 18 benchmarks, or roughly 17%, and this review of DHS suggests that it is meeting 5 of its 24 criteria, or around 21%. Sadly, I believe we are in an environment where we have defined competence down to a virtually meaningless level.