Chaotic Security Oversight Costs Taxpayers Money

Jessica Zuckerman / May 20, 2011

According to a recent AP story, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) “answered 11,580 letters, gave 2,058 briefings, and sent 232 witnesses to 166 hearings” in 2009.

The time it took for DHS to answer all these congressional inquiries is so great that it can’t be measured in hours, days, or even weeks. Rather, in 2009 alone, DHS officials apparently spent an equivalent of 66 work years responding to these congressional requests. If those numbers didn’t have your head spinning already, the total cost to U.S. taxpayers for all these efforts was roughly $10 million.

The reason for this vast expenditure of time and energy is the sprawling system of congressional oversight put upon DHS. DHS is subject to oversight from a total of 108 congressional committees, subcommittees, and caucuses. To put this in perspective, that is approximately four times as many committees and subcommittees as those that have authority over both the Departments of State and Justice combined. Even the Department of Defense—with a budget 10 times greater than DHS’s and millions more employees—answers to only 36 congressional committees and subcommittees. (more…)