A New Chance to Rethink DHS Acquisition
Late last week, the Coast Guard announced that DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff had rescinded the service’s acquisition authority, per the DHS 2009 appropriations bill. The removal of such authority from one DHS component, combined with the upcoming transition to a new Administration, provides an interesting opportunity to think through whether DHS components (the Coast Guard, Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Transportation Security Administration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Secret Service) could benefit from more centralized acquisition.
