|
|
|
Email this citationCIAO DATE: 01/04
Protecting the Homeland: Lessons from Prior Government Reorganizations
April 29, 2003
Introduction
This might well have been the greeting card on the desk of the nation’s first Secretary of Homeland Security: Officially launched January 24, 2003 with 180,000 employees and a budget of nearly $40 billion, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is, at its inception, the third largest cabinet agency in the U. S. government. No U. S. government reorganization of this magnitude has been accomplished since the creation of the Department of Defense following World War II.
The challenges of establishing and organizing such a large undertaking cover the entire spectrum of public management issues and, as the forum Chair noted in his opening remarks, "the transformation of the new department into a high-performance organization is not going to be self-executing."
Recognizing the difficulties the new Secretary would encounter, Congress provided for an Under Secretary for Management. That appointee was given the broadest set of responsibilities ever specified by law for such an internal management official. The Under Secretary is subsuming, for example, jurisdiction over critical systems that in other departments are managed by separate high-level managers, such as the Chief Information Officer or Chief Financial Officer. The provision for a unified managerial post gives the Secretary a chance to focus more attention on the fundamental mission of preventing and mitigating the effects of terrorist attacks.
