Homeland Security Watch

The GAO released a report recently entitled “Suggested Areas for Oversight in the 110th Congress” which lists 15 “Targets for Near-Term Oversight,” nearly half of which have to do with key homeland security and counterterrorism challenges. Item #4 is “Ensure the Effective Integration and Transformation of the Department of Homeland Security,” and under that point, the report suggests four key areas of focus:

• Evaluate the progress of DHS and its components in strategic planning, particularly whether strategic plans conform to best practices and link performance goals to resource requirements.
• Assess the progress of DHS in developing and integrating key management functions—financial, acquisition, information, and human capital—across its components.
• Review the progress of DHS and its components in performing risk assessments—particularly in the mission areas like border and transportation security and critical infrastructure protection—as part of a risk management approach to the allocation of resources.
• Examine the progress of DHS and its components in improving partnering with other federal, state and local governments, and private entities in the fulfillment of its homeland security and non-homeland security missions.

There are also sections suggesting near-term oversight on immigration and border security, counter-WMD proliferation, transportation safety and security, computer security, and intelligence transformation. The report also contains a section on programs in need of reform and a section discussing broad governance issues that Congress should look at.