12.29.2004
Homeland Security Oversight (WashingtonPost.com)
Tuesday, December 28, 2004; Page A18
WHOMEVER President Bush chooses as his next nominee to head the Department of Homeland Security would be well-advised to take a look at a spine-tingling new chart before accepting the job. The chart -- too large to reprint here but available for viewing at www.hsc.house.gov -- depicts the intricate web of congressional committees and subcommittees with oversight authority for the gargantuan department. There are 79 such panels; every single senator and at least 412 of the 435 House members have some degree of responsibility for homeland security operations. By contrast, the Defense Department, with a budget 10 times that of DHS, reports to "just" 36 committees and subcommittees.
From the perspective of national security, this fragmented, dysfunctional structure is sheer lunacy. Department officials spend too much time responding to their many congressional masters; last year alone, according to the departing secretary, Tom Ridge, he and other top department officials testified 145 times before various committees and subcommittees. Moreover, such balkanized oversight is less effective rather than more so, because members of Congress suffer from parochial viewpoints influenced by their individual committee assignments and fail to develop a broad overview of homeland security priorities.
(More ... Homeland Security Oversight (washingtonpost.com)) ¶ 19:49
WHOMEVER President Bush chooses as his next nominee to head the Department of Homeland Security would be well-advised to take a look at a spine-tingling new chart before accepting the job. The chart -- too large to reprint here but available for viewing at www.hsc.house.gov -- depicts the intricate web of congressional committees and subcommittees with oversight authority for the gargantuan department. There are 79 such panels; every single senator and at least 412 of the 435 House members have some degree of responsibility for homeland security operations. By contrast, the Defense Department, with a budget 10 times that of DHS, reports to "just" 36 committees and subcommittees.
From the perspective of national security, this fragmented, dysfunctional structure is sheer lunacy. Department officials spend too much time responding to their many congressional masters; last year alone, according to the departing secretary, Tom Ridge, he and other top department officials testified 145 times before various committees and subcommittees. Moreover, such balkanized oversight is less effective rather than more so, because members of Congress suffer from parochial viewpoints influenced by their individual committee assignments and fail to develop a broad overview of homeland security priorities.
(More ... Homeland Security Oversight (washingtonpost.com)) ¶ 19:49
