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The US Department of Homeland Security: From the Ground Up

In Part 1 of our series, we investigate the context, fears and executive orders that shaped the formation of DHS

DHS must grapple with a mission that's constantly in flux. The services that came together under the Department of Defense at least had a common purpose. "The toughest challenge is figuring out what DHS is trying to do and whom to work with to get the job done," says Kettl.

Did the White House bite off more existing agencies than the new department could possibly chew? That question was raised by some who, pre-DHS, advocated a smaller, more streamlined, more flexible organization. For example, in a 2002 report titled "Assessing the Department of Homeland Security," the Brookings Institution argued for a Cabinet-level agency that focused on border security and would have included the Coast Guard, Customs, TSA, part of the Agriculture Department, and the Immigration and Naturalization Service enforcement units.

The speed at which this off-the-charts overhaul of the federal government was occurring was also a controversial issue. When Hershman first heard the plan for DHS, "My first thoughts were, 'My God, let's not do this so quickly,'" he says. He favored a more cautious approach, noting that, "We were still in a time of great emotional upset. Typically in times like that, you're not thinking as clearly and rationally as you need to be."The Many Management ChallengesWhether a DHS-Mini-Meor the one that came together later, after further deliberationwould have been a more desirable result amounts to Monday-morning quarterbacking. For now, the department is what it isbig, diffuse and facing a multitude of management, cultural and homeland security challenges that almost seem unfair to impose on this baby-faced organization.

The list of management issues that come part and parcel with creating and staffing up a new bureaucracy reaches as high as the Washington Monument. Even figuring out what's on the list has been difficult. The GAO's Yim says that DHS was supposed to have delivered its strategic plan, with milestones and performance goals, last September. Instead, the department postponed doing that until the first quarter of 2004.

Trying to integrate hundreds of legacy technology systems in 23 agencies is an unenviable task. In addition to wiring itself, DHS must also create links to outside agencies like the DoD, CIA and FBI, as well as state and local governments. It must consolidate redundant systemsas of last fall, more than 80 financial management applications exist in the legacy systems of DHS agencies. And it must develop new ones. But introducing new technologies and systems takes months, even years, to roll outand that's before dealing with the inevitable bugs.