The House has passed HR-3572, designed to improve the accountability, standardization, and transparency of major DHS acquisition programs, along with reorganizing and better defining responsibilities of top management.
It directs DHS to submit a multiyear acquisition strategy to guide the overall direction of DHS acquisition, including a plan to address DHS acquisition workforce accountability and talent management and an assessment of the feasibility of conducting a pilot program to establish a homeland security acquisition workforce development fund. GAO would review the strategy to determine its effectiveness, and the DHS IG would monitor compliance.
The bill would require DHS to produce an annual comprehensive acquisition status report, notify Congress of any failure to meet any cost, schedule, or performance requirements and prepare a plan for resolving the problem and identifying its root cause.
It further designates the DHS undersecretary for management as the chief management officer, and assigns certain new duties to that position as well as to the chief financial officer, the chief information officer, and the chief human capital officer. The bill, which now goes to the Senate, also creates the new positions of chief procurement officer and chief security officer.