Report Calls for Refocusing Priorities of DHS

A bipartisan group of around 100 homeland and national security experts contributed to a report calling on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to restructure and refocus its priorities. They are calling for a shift in focus to nonmilitary threats such as the global pandemic, climate change, and cyber-attacks.

As the report attests, DHS has recently faced scrutiny related to its family separation policies and its deployment of officers to U.S. cities. Additionally, the department has a high turnover rate for top officials and consistently low morale.

Former DHS officials Thomas Warrick and Caitlin Durkovich wrote a report for the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security’s “Future of DHS” project “based on input from a Senior Advisory Board of former secretaries and acting secretaries of DHS and a distinguished bipartisan study group of more than 100 homeland and national security experts.” After communicating the challenges listed above, they wrote, “The solution to DHS’s problems is not to dismantle the department, because what DHS does, or should be doing, is vital to the security and safety of Americans and to national security broadly.”

Recommendations in the report include improving communications between the DHS, American citizens, and the private sector to better combat problems and national security risks. It also recommends strategies to improve engagement and morale within the department, mainly within the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

The report recommends, “Allow DHS employees to transfer more easily between components. Meritorious service in an entry-level position should give employees a preference that increases a candidate’s prospects for being hired elsewhere in DHS. DHS employees who are tied to a particular location — because of family reasons, for example — should be given outright preferment and service credit for other DHS jobs in the same area.”

Developing initiatives to unify DHS are also prioritized in the report, which recommends that all components of the department should work together instead of just working autonomously. For example, the report recommends rotating component personnel through tours of duty at DHS headquarters to acclimate DHS employees with one another, even if they belong to different components.