The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently released a study regarding the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosives (CBRNE) program consolidation proposal.
The GAO report found that DHS’s documentation related to its proposed consolidation offers some insights into benefits and limitations, but the information provided to the GAO did not include several key factors to consider when evaluating an organizational consolidation. While the DHS identified strategic goals and problems that the consolidation could solve, DHS did not fully assess and document potential problems that could result from consolidation. The DHS also did not include a comparison of benefits and costs nor did it conduct limited external stakeholder outreach in developing the consolidation proposal, which may not sufficiently account for stakeholder concerns.
The GAO report said that attention to those areas would help provide DHS, Congress and other stakeholders with assurances that important aspects of effective organizational change are addressed as part of the DHS’s CBRNE reorganization decision-making processes.
“DHS’s CBRNE mission is too important to be handled this haphazardly, and I am disappointed that the department submitted a reorganization request to Congress that was not ripe for action,” U.S. Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS) said. “The House-passed Department of Homeland Security CBRNE Defense Act is currently pending in the Senate, and I urge my colleagues there to weigh the GAO’s findings carefully should they choose to move forward in authorizing the proposed CBRNE reorganization.”
The GAO report recommended that DHS identify unintended problems that consolidation may create, complete a comparison of the consolidation’s benefits and costs, and broaden the range of stakeholder input.