during february’s budget battle for thefuture of the department of homeland security, the question of whether or not the agencywould continue operating got us wondering about its role in the us. what would lifebe like without the dhs? well, not all that long ago, the dhs didn’texist. in the turmoil following 9/11, the bush administration called for a new cabinetto oversee a number of existing government
American Signature Furniture Credit Card, agencies.most notably, us customs and border patrol, the transportation security administration(tsa), federal emergency management agency (fema), the secret service, and the coastguard. altogether, they were intended to function as domestic emergency responders and anti-terrorismworld police with revenue neutral spending.
but if all these departments already functionedon their own, would the absence of a dhs really be that noticeable? well, for starters, governmentcoffers might have a little more money in them. in 2013 the dhs accounted for $55 billionof the federal budget. dhs employees have been accused of abusing their government creditcards, in one case spending $30,000 on starbucks in a 6-month period. another report says thatother purchases, like office furniture, have ballooned out of control, with $28 millionspent in 2014 alone. but money aside, isn’t the dhs supposedto protect us from terrorism and respond to national disasters? well, when the dhs absorbedthe disaster response agency, fema, its director warned that the new restructuring would significantlyweaken the agency’s ability to deal with
emergencies. he was proven right after theresponse to hurricane katrina, which was slow and widely considered unsuccessful. a bipartisanreport found that this was partly due to the department’s unwillingness to provide disasterpreparedness funding to states unless they earmarked a portion to fight terrorism. now, some sources have noted that at least30 terror attacks have been prevented in the us since 9/11. ostensibly this is the doingof the dhs. but the infamous failed underwear and shoe bombers were not stopped from boardingflights while carrying explosives on them, despite the tsa’s aggressive efforts atscreening. nor was it the dhs that stopped the 2010 times square bombing attempt. furthermore,many of these potential, foiled, attacks have
been the result of the fbi and cia involvement,groups that handled terrorism in the days before 9/11. in fact, it was the cia who hadprepared the memo warning president bush of osama bin laden’s intentions. many have criticized the role of the dhs inmatters of budget, national security, and overall effectiveness at the cost of privacy.despite the original intentions of the department, much of what it was supposed to do was alreadybeing done by various agencies. so what would the us look like without the department ofhomeland security? well, since it’s a relatively new department and there are overlapping agenciesto pick up the slack --- probably about the same.
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