House weighs homeland security management shakeup

The House Homeland Security Committee is assessing whether the management hierarchy within the Homeland Security Department needs to be changed, committee members said Thursday.

In drafting the first DHS authorization bill, the committee might require the department to move its management directorate to the office of the deputy secretary, a position held by retired Coast Guard Adm. James Loy. Committee members think such a move would help officials more efficiently guide department policy.

"Wherever you can concentrate the management to get that done, the better you are," a committee official said.

The directorate is one of five managed by an undersecretary. Moving the management directorate under the deputy secretary would essentially elevate its status so it could better manage the integration of agency components, the official said.

The proposal does not reflect dissatisfaction with how the directorate has been administered, the official said, adding that Janet Hale, DHS undersecretary for management, would keep her position. Her title would probably change to associate deputy director.

Staffers said it is unclear when the authorization bill would be drafted.

Loy told lawmakers Thursday that the deputy secretary's office is the right place for the management directorate. "It's the only place that the entire department comes together, and the committee's expectation of what the [chief operating officer] ought to get done should rest with that position in the department."

Loy added that the department has established a structure through which he and Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge meet with all the undersecretaries once a week to discuss management issues. "I attend that meeting, and then have another meeting with a widened horizon that pulls all those players to the table, and I'm able to hear, literally, on a weekly basis from every one of those places inside the department," he said.

Loy added that the different agencies and personnel that were merged to create the department should be functionally integrated by March 2006.

"I think we at the top of the organization have to stress this DHS identity," he said. "The notion that it's a one-team, one-fight slogan, if you will, from Secretary Ridge is a very real rallying cry for many in the department. And I also believe that it has an enormous amount to do with keeping the other leaders in the organization-the agency heads, the undersecretaries-on board."

Some lawmakers, however, expressed frustration over some homeland security efforts. For example, Rep. Robert Andrews, D-N.J., said he did not understand why the country does not have an integrated terrorist watch list more than two years after 9/11.

"I know almost nothing about running an intelligence operation," Andrews said. "I know even less about software. But what is the big deal about taking a list that the CIA and the FBI has, merging it into one secure, well-vetted, limited-access database that everybody uses? Why haven't we done this in 30 months?"

He added: "We're here talking about management issues. And, boy, if this isn't a management issue, I don't know what is."

Loy said he will contact the director of the Terrorist Screening Center, which is responsible for integrating the watchlists but is not part of DHS, to get an answer for the committee.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., said committee members have repeatedly asked the DHS directorate on information analysis and infrastructure protection questions that have not been answered. "It's a black hole. Months go by. We never get answers," she said. "And I'm wondering, in your management capacity, if you could check and see what is the problem there on getting answers back to the committee."

She added that people within the directorate also do not provide testimony in a timely manner, and asked Loy to correct that problem, as well.