A new report from the Government Accountability Office
says the United States faces significant challenges
implementing the homeland security strategy “in a
coordinated and integrated manner.”
The strategy includes cooperation between federal, state,
local and private sector organizations to carry out a
range of functions, organized into six “critical
mission areas,” according to GAO-05-33.
It said those areas are intelligence and warning, border
and transportation security, domestic counterterrorism,
protecting critical infrastructures and key assets,
defending against catastrophic threats, and emergency
preparedness and response — and that the strategy
identifies 43 major initiatives across those six mission
areas, representing a daunting coordination and
integration challenge.
“Some of the most difficult challenges being confronted
are those that cut across the various critical mission
areas, such as balancing homeland security funding needs
with other national requirements, improving risk
management methods for resource allocation and
investments, developing adequate homeland security
performance measures, developing a national enterprise
architecture for homeland security, and clarifying the
roles and responsibilities among the levels of government
and the private sector,” said GAO.
It said the Departments of Defense, Energy, Health and
Human Services, Homeland Security, Justice and State all
have addressed the 43 initiatives to some extent regarding
strategic planning and implementation activities.
Yet, many of initiatives “had multiple lead agencies,
indicating that interagency coordination and roles and
activities will be important, particularly on those
initiatives involving domestic counterterrorism and
critical infrastructure protection,” said GAO.
It said all the initiatives were being implemented in
fiscal 2004 by at least one department, but had not
assessed the status or quality of the implementation efforts.
