and enforce the provisions" of Sec. 104 of the Immigration and National Act and all other immigration and nationality laws. I know of no other statute that gives one secretary of a department such authority over the secretary of another department. What if the secretary of state refuses to issue the secretary of homeland security's order, for example? It seems to me that if the president wants the secretary of homeland security to issue regulations governing the functions of diplomatic and consular officers of the United States in connection with the granting or refusal of visas, the president should transfer the organizational units to the new department. That is precisely what the president proposes for the various units of other departments such as Agriculture, Health and Human Services, Treasury, and Justice. I also noted with some chagrin that the president decided not to forward his own version of Senator Graham's legislation to create a statutory office of homeland security within the White House. Assuming that the president will continue to employ such an adviser, I believe Congress should give the adviser and his or her office the full statutory authority that it needs. Madame Chair and Members of Subcommittee: Thank you for the opportunity to appear before the Subcommittee today to discuss one of the most important issues of our time, the reorganization of government agencies and the reorientation of their missions to improve our nation's ability to better protect our homeland. It is important to recognize that this transition to a more effective homeland security approach is part of a larger transformation that our government must make to address emerging fiscal, economic, demographic, scientific, technological and other challenges of the 21st century and to meet the expectations of the American people for timely, quality and cost-effective public services. In the nine months since the horrible events of September 11th, the President and the Congress have responded with important and aggressive actions to protect the nation - creating an Office of Homeland Security (OHS), passing new laws such as the USA Patriot Act and an emergency supplemental spending bill, establishing a new agency to improve transportation security, and working with unprecedented collaboration with federal, state and local governments, private sector entities, non-governmental organizations and other countries to prevent future terrorist acts and to bring to justice those individuals responsible for such terrible acts. More recently, the Congress and the President have sought to remedy long-standing issues and concerns in the government's homeland security functions by proposing greater consolidation and coordination of various agencies and activities. Recent proposals include restructuring the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and splitting the enforcement and service sections of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). Additionally, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman and Representative William M. “Mac” Thornberry have authored legislation designed to consolidate many homeland security functions. On June 6th, the President announced a proposal to establish a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and on June 18th transmitted draft legislation to the Congress for its consideration. In my testimony today, I will focus on two major issues that Congress should review in its deliberations on creating a new cabinet department principally dedicated to homeland security: (1) the need for reorganization and the principles and criteria to help evaluate what agencies and missions should be included in or left out of the new DHS; and (2) issues related to the transition, cost and implementation challenges of the new department. In response to global challenges the government faces in the coming years, we have a unique opportunity to create an extremely effective and performance-based organization that can strengthen the nation's ability to protect its borders and citizens against terrorism. There is likely to be considerable benefit over time from restructuring some of the homeland security functions, including reducing risk and improving the economy, efficiency and effectiveness of these consolidated agencies and programs. Realistically, however, in the short term, the magnitude of the challenges that the new department faces will clearly require substantial time and effort, and will take additional resources to make it fully effective. Numerous complicated issues will need to be resolved in the short term, including a harmonization of information technology systems, human capital systems, the physical location of people and other assets, and many other factors. Implementation of the new department will be an extremely complex task and will ultimately take years to achieve. Given the magnitude of the endeavor, not everything can be achieved at the same time. As a result, it will be important for the new department to focus on a handful of important things, such as: articulating a clear overarching mission and core values, developing a national strategy, utilizing strategic planning to establish desired outcomes and key priorities, and assuring effective communications systems. Further, effective performance and risk management systems must be established, and work must be completed on threat and vulnerability assessments. NEED, PRINCIPLES AND CRITERIA FOR REORGANIZATION Need for Reorganization GAO and other observers of the federal government's organization, performance and accountability for terrorism and homeland security functions have long recognized the prevalence of gaps, duplication and overlaps driven in large part by the absence of a central policy focal point, fragmented missions, ineffective information sharing, and institutional rivalries. In recent years, GAO has made numerous recommendations related to changes necessary for improving the government's response to combating terrorism. Prior to the establishment of the OHS, GAO found that the federal government lacked overall homeland security leadership and management accountable to both the President and Congress. GAO has also stated that fragmentation exits in both coordination of domestic preparedness programs and in efforts to develop a national strategy.' Based on evaluations prior to September 11th, GAO identified the following five actions to improve programs to combat terrorism:2 Create a single high-level federal focal point for policy and coordination, Develop a national strategy with a defined end state to measure progress against, Coordinate implementation among the different federal agencies. Moreover, in a recent report to Congress on initial concerns about organizing for homeland security since September 11th, GAO indicated that a definition of homeland security should be developed, preferably in the context of the Administration's issuance of a national strategy for homeland security, in order to improve the effectiveness and coordination of relevant programs." 3 The recent and on-going actions of the Administration to strengthen homeland security functions, including the proposal for establishing DHS, should not be considered a substitute for, nor should they supplant, the timely issuance of a national homeland security strategy. Based on our prior work, GAO believes that the consolidation of some homeland security functions makes sense and will, if properly organized and implemented, over time lead to more efficient, effective and coordinated programs, better intelligence sharing, and a more robust Combating Terrorism: Comments on Counterterrorism Leadership and National Strategy, March 27, 2001 (GAO-01-556T). Combating Terrorism: Observations on Options to Improve the Federal Response, April 24, 2001(GAO-01660T). Homeland Security: Key Elements to Unify Efforts are Underway but Uncertainty Remains, June 7, 2002 (GAO-02-610). 4 protection of our people, borders and critical infrastructure. At the same time, the proposed cabinet department, even with its multiple missions, will still be just one of many players with important roles and responsibilities for ensuring homeland security. At the federal level, homeland security missions will be require the involvement of the CIA, FBI, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Department of Defense (DOD), and a myriad of other agencies. State and local governments, including law enforcement and first responder personnel, and the private sector all have critical roles to play. If anything, the multiplicity of players only reinforces the recommendations that GAO has made in the past regarding the urgent need for a comprehensive threat, risk and vulnerability assessment and a national homeland security strategy that can provide direction and utility at all levels of government and across all sectors of the country." 4 The development and implementation of a national strategy for homeland security is vital to effectively leveraging and coordinating the country's assets, at a national rather than federal level, to prevent and defend against future terrorist acts. A national homeland security strategy can help define and establish a clear role and need for homeland security and its operational components, to create specific expectations for performance and accountability, and to build a framework for partnerships that will support the critical role of coordination, communication and collaboration among all relevant parties and stakeholders with homeland security missions. DHS will clearly have a central role in the success of efforts to strengthen homeland security, but it is a role that will be made stronger within the context of a larger, more comprehensive and integrated national homeland security strategy, A reorganization of the government's homeland security functions along the lines being proposed is a major undertaking and represents one of the largest potential reorganizations and consolidations of government agencies, personnel, programs and operations in recent history. Those involved in this transition should not underestimate the time or effort required to successfully achieve the results the nation seeks. Numerous comparisons have been made between the proposed DHS and other large-scale government reorganizations, including the creation of DOD, the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Council as part of the National Security Act of 1947. Other analogies include the 1953 creation of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, the 1966 establishment of the Department of Transportation (DOT) or the 1977 creation of the Department of Energy (DOE). Each of these cabinet level restructurings involved the transfer and consolidation of disparate functions and the creation of a new cabinet level structure in the Executive Branch. Often it has taken years for the consolidated functions in new departments to effectively build on their combined strengths, and it is not uncommon for these structures to remain as management challenges for decades. It is instructive to note that the creation of DOD, which arguably already had the most similar and aligned missions and functions among the reorganizations mentioned, still required Congress to make further amendments to its organization in 1949, 1953, 1958 and 1986 in order to improve its structural effectiveness. Despite these and other changes made by DOD, GAO has consistently reported over the years that the department - more than 50 years after the reorganization -- continues to have a number of serious management challenges. In fact, DOD has 6 of 22 government wide high risk areas based on GAO's latest list." This note of caution is not intended to dissuade the Combating Terrorism: Selected Challenges and Recommendations, September, 2001 (GAO-01-822). |