Thursday, July 16, 2009

DHS still a mess, five years on

One of the main points of the creation of the Department of Homeland Security in 2004 was to centralize oversight over a wide array of agencies with responsibility for the safety and security of the United States and its territories. The 9/11 Commission made 41 specific recommendations to Congress, and one of those was "create a single, principal point of oversight and review for homeland security." But that's one that hasn't been accomplished--DHS oversight by Congress is through 86 separate committees and subcommittees (see chart below, click on it for the full-sized image).

The Center for Public Integrity and the Center for Investigative Reporting have joined forces to investigate the effectiveness of the Department of Homeland Security's efforts since its creation, and will be publishing a series of reports over the next several months which should prove quite interesting.

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