WASHINGTON, Jan. 24 (UPI) -- Experts warn that the Department of Homeland Security is unprepared for a terrorist attack or natural disaster because it lacks regional bodies to act as intermediaries between local, state and federal levels of government.
James Carafano, a Senior Fellow for National Security at the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington unveiled a list of five issues he thinks must be dealt with before the five-year anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks at a foundation briefing this week.
He urged the formation of regional DHS offices, which he said would improve coordination between different levels of government. Caravano said DHS must mobilize state and local governments and public safety officials as partners in intelligence, emergency response and domestic counterterrorism, he said.
"Regional offices are needed to enhance the effectiveness of DHS," Caravano told United Press International. "It is an absolute no brainer."
When Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff took over from Tom Ridge last July, a major reorganization and realignment of structure took place within the department. DHS spokesman Russ Knocke said regional offices were not included in restructuring.
Regional offices were proposed in the initial formation of DHS, but were shot down by the Office of Management and Budget. Caravano said the initial program for regions was too elaborate and expensive.
"It was way too ambitious and it got real political," he said. "It became like empire building within DHS."
Caravano said Chertoff got sick of the politics that came with regional governing and went a different route. However, he believes Congress must be pushed to implement effective regional coordination. "Congress has been asleep at the wheel on this issue," he said.
Knocke said the DHS had avoided politics by working with regions at a direct level rather than creating individual regional offices. "One major concern with regions is that it would create an extra level of bureaucracy and establish a kind of silo effect and various little fiefdoms responsible for a variety of cross cutting activities," he said.
DHS is currently working with the top 75 most populated metropolitan cities in the nation to assess their emergency preparedness systems, Knocke said. "There is tremendous coordination at all levels," he said.
Speaking at the Heritage Foundation event, Thomas Lockwood, Director of the Office of National Capitol Regional Coordination within DHS, said it was difficult to expect autonomous jurisdictions to sit down and coordinate together because of each one's unique economic and political concerns.
"It is not an easy thing to get jurisdictions together," Lockwood said. "What we want to do is strengthen regional coordination among all partners while respecting jurisdictional authority."
Others believe regional organizations would result in a more effective response because DHS offers the legal authority to put relief plans in motion quickly. The federal government's lagging response to Hurricane Katrina, which ravished the Gulf Coast last fall leaving thousands homeless, was a glaring example of the need for regional DHS offices, according to this argument.
"Katrina was a reality test that couldn't be replicated by any training exercise and the problems that went along with those relief efforts still exist," said retired Army General William Moore, now a consultant with Computer Sciences Corporation.
A regional body would also serve as a reassurance to those at the local level who are far removed from the inner-workings of Washington and the federal government, said former Attorney General Edwin Meese.
"They have to have that link and a feeling that they will have a voice at the local level," said Meese. When it comes down to disaster relief, Meese said, "The first responders are the ones at the local level -- there cannot be a lack of certainty."
"We can't turn a Katrina over to a FEMA again because they have no legal authority or enough manpower. DHS has got to be there to coordinate the whole effort," he said. "It has got to be done pretty quickly too, because the next test is right around the corner and we have got to do better the next time around."
