National Security Services

[rawkitheart]

Hey guys, I'm working on a project for my AP Government class and I was wondering if u guys had any thoughts on condensing national security agencies.

Basically we're spending a known $50 billion on national security, and im supposed to cut the budget, combine agencies, and streamline their operation so that we're only spending $30 billion or less.

The list of agencies I'm supposed to look at is the CIA, FBI, Secret Service, INS, US Coastguard and Homeland Security Department, and in the words of our classes president, "combine them under one department head to increase efficiency and eliminate duplicative employment positions that exist within parallel bureaucracies," and therefore "bureaucracy is reduced, making access to such programs more accessible to the public and more efficient in general."

Of course not all of that makes sense, and its obvious in some parts how our president isnt very knowledgable in the security sector, but ive got some ideas of mine own.

1. Make the Homeland Security Department a general head of all intelligence/security agencies in the united states. Most of the jobs within the HSD would be white collar bureaucrats, but there would be a few high ranking agents who would pursue large projects, these agents would then go down to the branches of the HSD to get their work done.
2. The HSD's actual dirty work will be done by the CIA and FBI who will attempt to focus specifically on their own theaters of interest (international and national, respectively). Both agencies will maintain seperate pools of information and agents, but will have to share everything with the HSD whose agents can therefore link up information on the international and national level.
3. The Coast Guard will be split into two agencies, the actual coast guarding Coast Guard and the drug interdiction Coast Guard. The dirty work will be shoveled off to the Navy, while the CIA will take on drug-interdiction in conjunction with activities already going on within the south-american theater of operations (which we all know is drug related anywa). If drugs do pass though the system, whatever knowledge will be immediately shipped over to the FBI which will handle national drug-trafficing.
4. The INS will be taken in by the HSD as a bridge unit between the FBI and CIA, attempting to prevent shady persons from entering the country (CIA intel) and removing shady persons from the country (FBI intel). The INS will have access to information from both agencies concerning persons attempting to enter the country or have entered the country.
5. The Secret Service will remain a solitary agency, but will have close ties with the HSD which will provide it with the information necessary to protect the president and catch counterfit money-makers.

[Flagg]

My suggestion may not fit your parameters, but here's what I've learned since living outside the US for quite a while.

I noticed that local law enforcement is likely quite inefficient in the following respects:

1.) many thousands of local law enforcement agencies

2.) many opportunities for consolidated administration/procurement/training etc. to save costs to be put towards more cops, better equipped cops, and better trained cops on the street....basically more efficient use of the same dollars(group purchasing, outsourcing admin, etc....this may already be occurring, but I thought I'd throw it out there).

I'm not suggesting a federal only law enforcement, far from it........just consolidating what can be to save the smaller law enforcement operations money...since local law enforcement is likely to be first response in future domestic national security/terrorism incidents.

[scott]

im not sure that putting central intelligence under DHS would be wise.
is it possible to fit it in with either state or defense? maybe putting CIA, NSA and the NRO (am i missing any?) under the pentagon would be more realistic (though, it never would happen, but for the sake of hypothesis)

that being said, i think it is *very* important that the CIA remain distinct.
you might as well call the Director a Secretary, it is charged with foreign intelligence pertaining to national security and in a country with an insecurity dilemma as much as the US, its budget should almost equal that of DHS.

when i look at a restructuring it just seems so complex.
the landscape today is as follows:
in DOJ you have: FBI, DEA, ATF (No longer Treasury)
in DHS you have USCG, Customs & Border, INS (Shared with DOJ), Transportation Security, Secret Service
add to that the dozens of other organisations that in one way or another contribute to national security within DOE, EPA, Treasury etc
where could more be done?
create a super agency merging DOJ with DHS? Public Safety and Security?
Could look good on paper, probably would end up costing too much

this really is a huge project, as canadians; we're pretty lucky
we really have one organisation with the power to arrest: the RCMP.
they liase with Customs and Border Protection, Canada Revenue, Citizenship & Immigration and Defence but law enforcement is centralized with the federal, municipal and in some cases provincial police.

The creation of DHS was a great step, it will (maybe) eliminate alot of overlap, but the simple fact remains that the United States is the most threatened nation in the world, the most paranoid (justifiably so) and the moment you start spending less on national security your opposition will jump on it as weakening the country.
Shrinking the budget from $50 billion would have been possible pre-9/11, but not today.

[Mr Gently Benevolent]

Scrap the DHS it was nothing more than a sticking plaster or even a knee jerk reaction to 911, take counter intel away from the FBI they have proven less than adept at it and form new counter intel and domestic intel group along the same lines of MI5. Keep the NSA and NRO as they are they may have huge budgets (not big enough) but they do great work and should be able to do it unfettered. Restrict the CIA's operations abroad giving more para military ops to the DoD who will do a better job as its rumoured that SAD get the people the DoD reject. Give the DoD more freedom to operate abroad very much along the lines of the Soviet Unions GRU, the CIA should be restricted to overseas domestic and diplomatic intel gathering and at all costs be kept away from para military ops and military intel gathering unless it lands on their laps. Special Collections should be run by the NSA as they are better at tasking this type of work. Oh yeah and the all of the above agencies should actually cooperate with each other and share all info where and when possible.