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GAO-19-360SP 1 (2019-04-19)

handle is hein.gao/gaobadzeb0001 and id is 1 raw text is: cAO U.S. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE 441 G St. N.W. Comptroller General Washington, DC 20548 of the United States April 19, 2019 The Honorable Kevin K. McAleenan Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Washington, D.C. 20528 Priority Open Recommendations: Department of Homeland Security Dear Mr. Secretary: The purpose of this letter is to provide an update on the overall status of the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) implementation of GAO's recommendations and to call your personal attention to areas where open recommendations should be given high priority.' In November 2018, we reported that on a government-wide basis, 77 percent of our recommendations made 4 years ago were implemented.2 DHS's recommendation implementation rate was 84 percent. As of January 2019, DHS had 427 open recommendations. Fully implementing these open recommendations could significantly improve DHS's operations. Since our April 2018 letter, DHS has implemented four of 19 open priority recommendations. Two of these recommendations are related to border security and immigration. Implementing these recommendations has resulted in some improvement to (1) the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services' (USCIS) ability to detect fraud patterns across asylum applications and (2) the U.S. Border Patrol's efforts to address tactical infrastructure requirements. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has also limited funding for its Behavior Detection Program, consistent with our recommendation that it does so until it provides valid evidence that demonstrates that behavioral indicators can be used to identify passengers who may pose a threat to aviation security. DHS implemented the fourth recommendation by designating its headquarters consolidation program as a major acquisition, which resulted in greater departmental oversight of the program. DHS has 15 priority recommendations remaining from those we identified in our April 2018 letter. We ask your continued attention on these remaining recommendations. We are adding 11 new recommendations as priorities this year related to Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) flood insurance, southwest border barriers, Coast Guard electronic health records and station closures, cybersecurity, and chemical and nuclear security, bringing the total number of priority recommendations to 26. (See the enclosure for the list of these recommendations.) The 26 priority recommendations fall into the six major areas listed below. Priority recommendations are those that GAO believes warrant priority attention from heads of key departments or agencies. They are highlighted because, upon implementation, they may significantly improve government operation, for example, by realizing large dollar savings; eliminating mismanagement, fraud, and abuse; or making progress toward addressing a High Risk or duplication issue. 2GAO, Performance and Accountability Report: Fiscal Year 2018, GAO-1 9-1 SP (Washington, D.C.: November 15, 2018). GAO-19-360SP DHS Priority Recommendations Page 1

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