DHS Seeks Streamlined Oversight
By Tom Shoop | Monday, July 21, 2008 | 02:28 PM
By Tom Shoop | Monday, July 21, 2008 | 02:28 PM
Homeland Security Department officials swear they don't mind congressional oversight. They'd just like a little less of it, thank you very much.
In an op-ed in today's New York Times, Stephen R. Heifetz, DHS's deputy assistant secretary for policy development, bemoans the "congressional mess" his department faces on a regular basis. With an obligation to respond to the 80 committees and subcommittees that oversee DHS and its component agencies, the department, he says, has little time to actually develop and implement policy.
The "surplus of committees compels agency workers to devote countless hours to responding to literally thousands of requests and conflicting congressional priorities," Heifetz writes. "In 2007 alone, department officials testified at 231 Congressional hearings and provided more than 2,600 briefings to legislators and their staffs."
What's worse, he says, "individual committees focus on the risks in their domain at the expense of comparable — and perhaps greater — risks outside."
Comments
I think DHS needs as much or more oversite as is currently the case. However, I can see the need for consolidated oversite.
Lane Narrows | Wednesday, July 23, 2008 | 07:51 AMI work for DHS. I did exactly the same job when I worked under the Dept of the Treasury. Congressional oversight of that Dept was nowhere near as parochially motivated as that of DHS. If Congressional committee chairpersons were half as interested in actually helping the young Dept achieve its mission as they are in protecting their access to federal dollars to fund projects which should be state and municipal responsibilities, it would be very helpful.
Mark | Wednesday, July 23, 2008 | 06:36 AMThe op-ed in the New York Times written by Stephen Heifetz, a DHS deputy assistant secretary for policy development bemoans the reporting process to Congress on DHS oversight. DHS is a very large agency and one would think that there would be alot of reporting for the billions of dollars DHS receives. I have seen what happens when there is not oversight or enough of it for tax dollars, and the waste and mis-use of resources is terrible. The taxpayer should be aware of what this government official is requesting. They basically want a free rein using taxpayer dollars. This guy and others like him need to manage and just do their jobs. I don't think that they understand that.
frank | Tuesday, July 22, 2008 | 12:54 PMABOUT THIS BLOG
Government Executive Editor Tom Shoop takes a look at news and events affecting the federal bureaucracy, from the perspective of a longtime observer of government.
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