Ten years ago, the 9/11 Commission urged Congress to overhaul its supervision of the Department of Homeland Security in the name of national security. At the time, Homeland Security answered to 88 Congressional committees and subcommittees. Today the department answers to even more — 92 as of the last Congress, not including another 27 caucuses, commissions and other Congressional groups and offices.
The 9/11 Commission’s recommendation for streamlined oversight of Homeland Security is the last major recommendation among the 41 it issued on July 22, 2004. It has been endorsed by an array of national-defense experts, and most recently by the Sunnylands-Aspen Task Force, convened in 2013 by the Annenberg Public Policy Center and the Aspen Institute Justice & Society Program at the Annenberg Retreat at Sunnylands. The task force included the former 9/11 Commission chairman and vice-chairman, Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton, as well as former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and former U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen.
The issue was spotlighted on Sunday, July 20, just before the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 Commission, in an ad in the New York Times. To see the ad and learn more about the issue click here or go to http://www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org/security/
