Increased Accountability Standards for the Department of Homeland Security (H.R. 2199)

What is H.R. 2199?

(Updated January 31, 2017)

This bill would alter acquisitions operations for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to increase accountability while also increasing congressional oversight of the agency.

The bill creates a lot of new regulations surrounding how the DHS goes about buying new services and equipment. Specifically, it:

• Gives the ability to approve, halt, change, or cancel large acquisition programs to the DHS's Chief Acquisition Officer and the Undersecretary for Management;

• Requires that every major acquisition program have an approved Acquisition Program Baseline (APB) document, which basically lays out the goals and timeline for a program;
  

• Requires the DHS to submit reports to Congress every 3 months on major acquisition programs that fail to meet cost, schedule, or performance requirements;

• Directs the DHS to streamline the acquisition process and solve issues with bid protests (where a third party being hired by the government disagrees with their contract) using existing resources;

• Instructs the DHS to eliminate redundancies;

• Appoints the DHS's Chief Procurement Officer to oversee a training program for DHS employees who handle acquisitions;

• Requires a Multiyear Acquisition Strategy be included in each Future Years Homeland Security Program (a report that details the DHS's funding needs for the coming five years);

• Requires the Acquisition Review Board (ARB) to validate  documents and review the cost, schedule, and performance goals for major acquisitions;

Argument in favor

Provides fiscal oversight of a federal agency that lacks transparency, overpays contractors, and consistently works with vendors with shoddy track records.

Argument opposed

DHS has and is making significant improvements to how it manages itself. Some of the bill's requirements are duplicative.

Impact

The DHS and its employees; Congress.

Cost of H.R. 2199

Additional Info

"Congressional watchdogs continue to find failures in how DHS spends billions of taxpayer dollars on its major acquisition purchases. As a combat aviator having served in Iraq, I understand the importance of delivering tools to the field in a timely way. Frontline operators securing our borders, defending our shores, and protecting our aviation systems should not wait years longer than promised for systems that don’t perform as intended. The American people also deserve strong accountability so that their hard earned tax dollars are not put at risk. This bill seeks to fix long-standing problems at DHS to more efficiently meet its mission and better protect taxpayer dollars."

"DHS has made significant progress in improving acquisition management across the department. Moreover, much of the legislation either duplicates or reorganizes existing management processes that are already in statute. It seems that the bill would further proscribe and reorganize management processes that should be left to the discretion of DHS leadership."