Last week, I had the opportunity to participate in a conference on domestic security hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. My particular panel focused on the need for reform of Congressional oversight of the Department of Homeland Security — appropriately enough, CSIS chose to dub it “Congressional Chaos.”
The panel – that was moderated by Dr. James Carafano of the Heritage Foundation and also included Jessica Herrera-Flanigan, partner of Andrew Howell and Stewart Verdery at Monument Policy Group and Mike Russell of the House Homeland Security Committee (Minority Office) – once again demonstrates the convoluted maze of oversight that DHS faces each and every day.
Now that President-Elect Obama has all but officially announced that Gov. Janet Napolitano will become the next DHS Secretary, his DHS-focused Transition team will begin prioritizing policy and programming initiatives for his first term. For everyone’s sake, let’s hope working with Congress to reform the current oversight structure is among them.
