That word “Homeland” is a splinter in my mind, did the focus group reject “Motherland” and “Fatherland”?
Why? TSA started out at Transportation, until it was moved to DHS.
Not nazi enough.
And the Department of State Security was already taken.
Just talking from anecdotal experience - I have worked a lot with the air arm of Customs before they were split up into ICE then CBP. I think the efforts I’ve done with them, to include disruption of narco-trafficing and human smuggling, have been smoother with more information sharing.
Also, DHS got a lot of funding for the Coast Guard when it stood up, and for that, I’m grateful.
Well, part of the rationale was that it would reduce inter-agency intelligence squabbles of the sort that helped to allow 9/11 to happen, as you noted in the OP. However, those were (theoretically) dealt with by making all the agencies report to the (newly created) Director of National Intelligence. Also, they only moved a couple of intelligence gathering agencies under DHS. So really, I don’t see the point.
I’ve known quite a few people who work inside the belly of the DHS beast and they have all stated that it is badly dysfunctional.
It is kind of like a vicious cycle of poverty. Once it is screwed up, then all the competent people leave and only leave the less competent people in charge. Rinse and Repeat.
And just to prove that this is not just anecdotes:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/…y-plans-to-do/
“The Department of Homeland Security ranked dead last again among federal agencies for overall employee satisfaction and commitment, with its score dropping to a historic low in the annual Best Places to Work in the Federal Government rankings.”
and
“A recent exodus of DHS employees has exacerbated the agency’s leadership problems, with workers leaving the agency at nearly twice the rate of the federal government overall during the past four years, according to a Washington Post review of federal data.”
Reminds me of when back in the 80s my university wanted to save money, so they merged the fire department with the police department. Oh, they kept the fire chief at the same salary and the police chief at the same salary. But now that the organizations were merged they needed someone to head the newly merged department, which meant hiring a third guy to be the boss of the fire chief and police chief. And of course that guy is senior to both of them, so he has to be paid more than either of them…