The Intense Personalization of Caring
Everywhere I turn, I get the sense that people are thinking, “If I cannot control it, I don’t worry about it.” When I read the latest Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, I wondered if DHS employees are expressing the same...
DetailsDHS Proposes Rule on FOIA – Comment Period Open
DHS recently proposed a rule on Freedom of Information Act regulations and concluded that "this rule does not impose additional costs on the public or the government.” I take exception to the fact that DHS has not been able...
DetailsProblems Continue with FOIA Backlog at DHS
The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is a law that gives individuals the right to access information from the federal government; however, some agencies are doing a better job at responding to requests than others. I am currently part...
DetailsTSA Rolls Out A New Website…and It Needs Work
Last week, TSA rolled out its new website. If the GAO were writing a review of the site, it would no doubt conclude that “progress has been made but much work remains to be done.” In fact, there is...
DetailsA Congressional Hearing ‘Do-Over’ Done Very Well
A few weeks back, I recommended that the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection and Security Technologies have a “do-over” of a hearing where the subject was private sector interaction with DHS S&T. The reason I recommended...
DetailsOpen Letter to Joseph Kolb and Fox News – What’s In A Name?
Dear Fox News' Joseph Kolb: How long will it take before you realize that Border Patrol agents and CBP's Office of Field Operations officers are NOT the same thing? On Friday night, July 31, you published a story that...
DetailsAfter TSA Airport Failures, Security Versus the Economy
The recent DHS Inspector General test of TSA airport screening processes revealed a 95% failure rate. To improve, tradeoffs will have to be made, and they all have costs. How much the failure rate changes will depend on how...
DetailsHuman Factors – A Prerequisite for a DHS CVE Office
The proposed Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) Act of 2015 (H.R. 2899) could benefit from a bit more study and debate. The bill would create a CVE Office within DHS, filling a hole that should not exist in DHS. It...
DetailsLeaving Government But Not the Mission – Saull Departs Capitol Hill
Bradley Saull recently announced that he was leaving the House Homeland Security Committee staff, where he has worked for the past two years, to join the Professional Services Council. He may be leaving the government, but thank goodness he...
DetailsInconsistent Wait Time Data from DHS
DHS needs a uniform policy across all components on disseminating high quality, objective data that provides utility to all who use it. The data needs to be transparent and reproducible. With regards to the collecting and posting of wait...
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