Washington – Hobbled by inadequate funding, unclear priorities, continuing reorganizations and the absence of an overarching strategy, the Department of Homeland Security is failing to achieve its mission of preventing and responding to terrorist attacks or natural disasters, according to a comprehensive report by the Government Accountability Office.
The highly critical report disputes recent upbeat assessments by the Bush administration by concluding that the department has failed to make even moderate progress toward eight of 14 internal government benchmarks more than four years after its creation.
The report is to be released to lawmakers today, as the Democratic Congress, Republican White House and presidential candidates from both parties are beginning to debate the administration’s record of accomplishments since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, whose sixth anniversary will be Tuesday.
It echoes a sober report card issued by the Sept. 11 commission in December 2005, which awarded mostly failing and mediocre grades to the administration’s efforts to prevent another terrorist attack.
The GAO states that after the largest government merger in more than half a century, the department met fewer than half of its performance objectives, or 78 of 171 directives identified by President Bush, Congress and the department’s own strategic plans. The department strongly disputed the report.
In one of its harshest conclusions, the 320-page document states that the department has made the least progress toward some of the fundamental goals identified after the 2001 attacks and again after Hurricane Katrina in August 2005: improving emergency preparedness; capitalizing on the nation’s wealth and scientific prowess through “Manhattan project”-style research initiatives; and eliminating bureaucratic and technical barriers to information-sharing.
Wednesday, Senate Homeland Security Committee chairman Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., said that although the department “has made important progress,” it requires more focused attention and money.
“Clearly, we have a long way to go before the department achieves the goals we set out for it four and a half years ago,” said Lieberman, who will chair a hearing on the matter this afternoon.
