Let us open the discourse by stipulating that today’s security story is only indirectly aimed at the Department of Homeland Security and TSA. This one lies primarily at the feet of Congress, which 12 years ago created DHS and placed within it a conglomeration of 22 other sub-agencies, including the US Secret Service, TSA, FEMA, CBP, ICE, and the US Coast Guard, among others. Its planned facility is the largest federal complex since the Pentagon was built in 1943, and is the third-largest cabinet level department after Defense and Veterans Affairs, and is spread among 40 facilities throughout the Washington, DC area.
Congressional oversight of DHS and all of its components falls under the jurisdiction of more than 100 congressional committees and subcommittees, to which each of those 22 agencies, plus DHS itself, must report and respond to constant inquiries. Simply tracking those hearings and preparing testimony is a full time job for a large office in each agency. Now, add to that the topic of the previous column in this space, which noted that both DHS and TSA fall each year to the very bottom of the list of worst places to work in the government.
The government has already spent $1.5 billion, about one third of the necessary final cost, to consolidate all of the DHS facilities in one location, and much of the infrastructure is already in place: power plant, IT system, telecommunications, data systems, water, vehicle screening facility, and a perimeter security fence, in addition to the completed and now-operating Coast Guard headquarters. However, the entire project is now 11 years behind schedule (nearly the entire life of DHS, nearly empty and aging as we speak) because Congress continues to cut the necessary appropriations to finish a more unified secure campus where all the agencies’ executive leadership and operational management can interact more efficiently and employee-friendly, while paying enormous amounts to continue leasing the other 40 sites – in other words, completion and consolidation will essentially pay for itself.
I can sympathize with the low morale and dissatisfaction of the agency workforce, having been one myself in the past; there is much to be desired from the advantages of integrating all the moving parts of such a complex operation. When dealing with issues of national security, conferring quickly with one’s counterpart in a sister agency down the hall is considerably more productive than requiring a full day of travel time to go across the river to another state for a meeting sometime next week.
This story does have an interesting twist: the new DHS headquarters, should it ever be completed, will house nearly 20,000 employees on the site of a National Historic Landmark overlooking the southeast quadrant of the city: St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, still in operation on a separate part of the campus, established by Congress in 1855 as a government-run hospital for the insane. You may insert your own joke here…
…but be very careful how you phrase it. I had several St. Elizabeth jokes lined up, until I learned that the US Secret Service has issued a request for software that detects sarcasm on social media and online. You know that little thing in your head that stops you when you shouldn’t say something? Yeah – I don’t have one of those….
