Homeland Security gets a failing grade....

From CREW:

Five years ago, President Bush signed legislation creating the Department of Homeland Security. Over the past five years, the American people have become far too familiar with stories about DHS and its gross overruns on projects, the worst employee morale in the federal government, the inoperability of information technology, our exposure to cyber-terrorism and FEMA's fake press conference.

Today, CREW is releasing a new report, Homeland Security for Sale - DHS: Five Years of Mismanagement, detailing massive failures and billions wasted at the Department of Homeland Security.

The report can be found at www.homelandsecurityforsale.org, along with a video produced by Brave New Foundation.

CREW details billions of dollars in waste and mismanagement of taxpayer dollars, for example:

$24 billion has been spent, and at least $178 million wasted, on the failed Coast Guard Deepwater program;
over $600 million has been allocated for unworkable radiation border scanners;
$1.3 billion has been lost on the US-VISIT program, which was never fully implemented; and
projected $2 billion loss on the SBInet "virtual fence" border program.
Those who run the agency must be held accountable for its massive failures and CREW wants to spark a public debate about how DHS can and must be improved in the next administration. The next President will have to fix DHS -- and all the candidates need to provide specific plans to address the massive failings outlined in Homeland Security for Sale - DHS: Five Years of Mismanagement.

Ask your presidential candidate what he or she would do to fix DHS in the next administration.

The report is divided into five sections. For each, we name the worst offender and the runner-up earning dishonorable mention:

I. Most Troubled DHS Component: FEMA
Dishonorable Mention: TSA

II. Most Outrageous Contract: Deepwater
Dishonorable Mention: Radiation Detection Portal Monitors

III. Failed Program: US-VISIT
Dishonorable Mention: SBInet

IV. Component with the Most Serious Crime Problem:
CBP (U.S. Customs and Border Protection)
Dishonorable Mention: TSA

V. Beneficiary of the Revolving Door: Tom Ridge
Dishonorable Mentions: Holman, Buchholz, Davis, Hutchison

The Department of Homeland Security is an embarrassment that would be comical if only our national security were not at stake.

This is a national security crisis. The American people deserve far better from their government.

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