DHS Needs Full-Year Funding to Address High-Risk Programs
(WASHINGTON) – Today, Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS), Ranking Member of the Committee on Homeland Security, released the below statement on the Government Accountability Office's (GAO) high-risk list (GAO-15-290). GAO, every two years, releases a report to call attention to government agencies and program areas that are high-risk due to their vulnerabilities to fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement, or are most in need of transformation. This year, three areas relating to homeland security were labeled as high-risk.
GAO's biennial high-risk list serves as a roadmap for effective Congressional oversight and I thank the Comptroller for issuing it in a timely manner. I have been focused on Homeland Security oversight since the Department of Homeland Security was created, and I am keenly interested in seeing it meet all of the criteria necessary to have its management functions removed from the high-risk list. While I am pleased that GAO commends Secretary Johnson and Deputy Secretary Mayorkas for their commitment and support for addressing DHS' management challenges, room for improvement remains. However, the improvements needed will be hampered if Republicans continue to play games with funding for DHS. Without proper full-year funding, high-risk programs are put even more at jeopardy. Unfortunately, the high-risk list includes critical programs for protecting the homeland such as the securing of Federal information systems, cyber critical infrastructure protection, and establishing effective intelligence sharing mechanisms.
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