From the U.S. Government Accountability Office, www.gao.gov Transcript for: Our Priority Recommendations for the Department of Homeland Security Description: For the Department of Homeland Security, our priority recommendations include those that would improve security at the border, in transportation, at chemical and nuclear facilities, and in the cyber and border security. We find out more from GAO's Chris Currie. Related GAO Work: GAO-21-377PR, Priority Open Recommendations: Department of Homeland Security Released: August 2021 [Intro Music] [Chris Currie:] It's really critical that the department zone-in on the key areas for improvement, and know how to prioritize their efforts. [Holly Hobbs:] Hi and welcome to GAO's Watchdog Report. Your source for news and information from the U.S. Government Accountability Office--celebrating 100 years of fact-based, nonpartisan government oversight. I'm Holly Hobbs. Every year, GAO sends letters to federal agencies, highlighting our recommendations from past reports that we think agency should prioritize because they would have an immediate, high impact on the most pressing challenges facing their agencies and programs. For the Department of Homeland Security, our priority recommendations include those that would improve national security in areas like transportation, border, and cybersecurity. Today we'll find out more from Chris Currie, an expert on the Department of Homeland Security's management and a Director in our Homeland Security and Justice team. Thank you for joining us, Chris. [Chris Currie:] Thank you. [Holly Hobbs:] So Chris, our priority recommendations for DHS seemed to strike at things that are at the core of national security. Let's take them one by one, starting with the one that has been in headlines a lot lately because of the attack on Colonial Pipeline. What are our priority recommendations about cybersecurity? [Chris Currie:] Actually you know, cybersecurity has been on GAO's high risk list since the 90s. So well before DHS was created. But, DHS really plays a very unique role in the federal government because in one sense it's a federal agency, just like everybody else, and it has to protect its own networks from malicious attacks. But DHS also has responsibilities for securing hardware and software of other federal agencies. So our recommendations are really wide ranging in this area. For example, within DHS itself, they've had a lot of challenges recruiting and retaining the right kind of cybersecurity professionals they need to achieve their mission. So we have priority recommendations around that issue. We also have recommendations around DHS protecting its own network in its own infrastructure and how they can do that better. [Holly Hobbs:] And speaking of the Colonial Pipeline attack, we also had a priority recommendation to address pipeline security issues. Can you tell us what we recommended there? [Chris Currie:] Absolutely, and I think this is a fascinating area, because after the ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline, many of us, including people that I know that have no knowledge of the federal government are now very aware of what these pipeline systems are. And they are critical infrastructure and shutting them down can disable pieces of our economy. What many people still don't know is that TSA has responsibilities for securing our nation's pipeline systems. This is the same agency that screens you and your bags at the airport. We actually issued a report over two years ago that raised serious concerns about TSA's abilities to successfully fulfill this mission. At that time, they had very few staff and very few efforts to address pipeline security and had really no plan to figure out what sort of workforce they were going to need in the future to address this issue, versus all the other efforts they have in the aviation realm. So we recommended that they do this. And now this is a priority recommendation given the security concerns. We also made a number of other recommendations to TSA in this area as well. [Holly Hobbs:] And chemical and nuclear security is also an area where we've done a lot of work and have a priority recommendation. Can you describe the issue there and the action we think DHS should prioritize to address them? [Chris Currie:] I'm glad you asked me that because with DHS, it seems like there's been a lot of focus in recent years on issues like cybersecurity and border security, and rightly so. But it seems that often chemical and nuclear threats have kind of taken a backseat. Maybe because the perception is they're less likely. However, you know, these are still very serious and likely threats, and we've continued to focus our work on these issues. For example, we recommended over two years ago that DHS develop a strategy and plan to coordinate its chemical defense programs. What we found was that these efforts were sort of fragmented across all of DHS's components, and there wasn't really one central strategy tying all these together, as you might see in other more coordinated efforts like cybersecurity and things like that. So that recommendation is still open. DHS has made a lot of progress developing that plan. They plan to try to issue that by the end of this year. [Holly Hobbs:] Border security is an area where DHS has taken action on our priority recommendations, but some work remains. Can you talk about that? [Chris Currie:] Yes, DHS has made progress in recent years in a number of areas. But the bottom line is, there's still a long way to go. In February of 2017, for example, we made a recommendation that DHS develop metrics to assess contributions of pedestrian vehicle fencing to border security. So this is the border fencing that's often discussed in the national media. And they haven't done that yet. And we think it's very important that they complete these efforts. We've also had recommendations in the area of border security technologies, things outside of fencing that are used to try to detect and apprehend illegal border crossings. And that's just two of many recommendations in this area that we continue to monitor and are priorities. [Music] [Holly Hobbs:] So it sounds like there are a number of critical security issues facing the U.S. on all fronts. And that while these challenges are significant, we've identified a number of actions DHS should prioritize that would have an immediate, positive effect on these issues. Chris, how many priority recommendations are currently open that need addressed by the Department of Homeland Security? And what's the benefit of us sending them an annual letter? [Chris Currie:] Well, the quick answer is there's 38 open priority recommendations spanning across the very different missions that DHS has. It's also important to note that since last year's letter, DHS fully implemented 12 priority recommendations. This is great progress in one year. But obviously with 38 remaining, there's still a number to go. And we added quite a few this year just given all of the security threats and issues that DHS is facing. But you know, in my view, there's really two major benefits of us sending these types of letters. First, we send these to every federal department to ensure they understand the recommendations that we believe are most important and will have the greatest benefit if implemented. Second, we make so many recommendations to large departments like DHS. In their case, we have over 450 recommendations, which is pretty typical for us to a large department like DHS. And it's difficult, I think, for DHS to know which of those to really focus in on unless we identify which [ones] are a priority. These letters also help DHS and they help us at GAO, frankly, know where we really need to focus our efforts for the most impact. [Holly Hobbs:] And last question, what's the bottom line of this report? [Chris Currie:] In my view, DHS is one of the largest agencies in the government and arguably has one of the most diverse and large mission sets. It's really critical that the department zone-in on the key areas for improvement and know how to prioritize their efforts just because they have so many issues to deal with day in and day out. [Holly Hobbs:] That was Chris Currie talking about GAO’s priority recommendations for the Department of Homeland Security. Thank you for your time, Chris. [Chris Currie:] Thank you [Holly Hobbs:] And thank you for listening to the watchdog report. To hear more podcasts, subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts and more, and make sure you leave a rating and review to let others know about the work we're doing. 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