The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has made progress in strengthening its mission functions the past eight years as embodied in the issuance of strategic and operational plans, developing policies and procedures for screening air travelers and foreign nationals and the coordination of efforts to prepare for and respond to cyber threats, among other things, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) says in a new report on how well DHS is doing in implementing its missions since its creation in 2008.
“Since DHS began operations in March 2003, it has developed and implemented key policies, programs, and activities for implementing its homeland security missions and functions that have created and strengthened a foundation to achieve its potential as it continues to mature,” says the report, Department of Homeland Security: Progress Made and Work Remaining in Implementing Homeland Security Missions 10 Years after 9/11 (GAO-11-881). “However, the department’s efforts have been hindered by challenges faced in leading and coordinating the homeland security enterprise; implementing and integrating its management functions for results; and strategically managing risk and assessing, and adjusting as necessary, its homeland security efforts. DHS has made progress in these three areas, but needs to take additional action…to help it achieve its full potential.”
The main body of the report provides a snapshot of progress and work remaining in 10 mission functional areas such as aviation, border and maritime security. Later, in separate appendices included at the back of the report, GAO provides more details on the progress and work remaining in each functional area.
Regarding aviation security, GAO touts the development and implementation of the Secure Flight passenger vetting program against terrorist watch lists as a key effort, as well as the deployments of various screening technologies to check passengers and their bags for explosives, the training of Behavior Detection Officers (BDO), and screening of air cargo on all passenger flights departing from airports in the United States.
On the other hand, the purchase of airport checkpoint technologies needs to be based on a risk-based strategy and cost benefit analyses, GAO says. It also says that DHS still has not validated the science behind the observation techniques used by BDOs and has not developed a play for deploying new Explosive Detection Systems for screening checked bags based on new detection requirements.
Similar to aviation security, GAO cites a number of advances DHS has made in the area of border security regarding the inspection of travelers and cargo at ports of entry and security between ports of entry. It points to the deployment of the US VISIT program to verify the identity of foreign nationals entering the United States while noting that the program still lacks a biometric-enabled means to account for the exit from the country of these individuals.
The report also notes that it was “unclear” about the cost-effectiveness of the now-canceled Secure Border Initiative Network and that the department needs to do more to boost its oversight of “interagency forums operating along the northern border” of the United States.
The GAO report follows a report card released last week by a group within the Bipartisan Policy Center that is chaired by the former commissioners of the 9/11 Commission. That report says that of the Commission’s 41 recommendations, nine have not been fulfilled, leaving the country less safe than it would be otherwise (Defense Daily, Sept. 1).
While DHS has more to do in bolstering the security of the homeland, Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I/D-Conn.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said at a hearing yesterday to review the GAO report that the work that has been done to secure the homeland has paid off.
“Some people say that the federal government overreacted in its response to the 9/11 attacks,” Lieberman said at the outset of the hearing. “I don’t agree. In the past decade, we have been spared another catastrophic terrorist attack like the one on 9/11 and that’s not just a matter of luck or coincidence. It’s because of what so many people in government did. Ten years ago, not single agency and no single official were designated to lead the federal government’s efforts to prevent terrorism or to adequately marshal the resources of the federal government to respond to catastrophic disasters. Today there is clarity on who is in charge, and that makes a tremendous difference in the security of the country.”