Former DHS Secretaries Write Congress Advocating for Oversight Reforms

In an open letter to Congressional leaders, six former Secretaries of Homeland Security wrote that Congress needs a reorganization of the way it oversees the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The former secretaries and acting secretaries, stretching across Republican and Democratic administrations, are Tom Ridge, Michael Chertoff, Janet Napolitano, Jeh Johnson, Rand Beers, and Kevin McAleenan.

Specifically, the former DHS leaders wrote, Congress must consolidate its oversight of DHS under one committee’s jurisdiction. Currently, over 90 committees and subcommittees have jurisdiction over the DHS and its components.

 “We urge that House and Senate provide stronger direction to DHS in the 117th Congress by amending House Rule X and S. Res. 445 to consolidate committee jurisdiction around a single primary authorizing committee in each body,” the letter reads.

As the senior advisors to the Atlantic Council’s “Future of DHS” project, the six secretaries made several recommendations to the executive branch to improve the functioning of DHS. The recommendations included ways for DHS to focus on urgent threats to the homeland, use an updated approach, address management issues, and improve its communications.

The letter reads, “DHS urgently needs to make major reforms, improvements, and enhancements to ensure the Department can protect the nation in the way Congress envisioned nearly two decades ago. DHS’s leadership, whether Democratic or Republican, needs to work with a single authorizing committee with broad subject matter authority to enact the changes and authorize the programs that DHS needs to address the threats of 2021.”

DHS was formed following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks to oversee and coordinate a comprehensive national strategy for combating terrorism. The department consolidated all or part of 22 different federal departments and agencies into one unified body.