**GAO-08-457T**                      Published: Feb 13, 2008. Publicly Released: Feb 13, 2008.                  

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## Highlights

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) began operations in March 2003 with missions that include preventing terrorist attacks from occurring within the United States, reducing U.S. vulnerability to terrorism, minimizing damages from attacks that occur, and helping the nation recover from any attacks. GAO has reported that the implementation and transformation of DHS is an enormous management challenge and that the size, complexity, and importance of the effort make the challenge especially daunting and critical to the nation's security. GAO's prior work on mergers and acquisitions found that successful transformations of large organizations, even those faced with less strenuous reorganizations than DHS, can take at least 5 to 7 years to achieve. This testimony is based on GAO's August 2007 report evaluating DHS's progress between March 2003 and July 2007, selected reports issued since July 2007, and our institutional knowledge of homeland security issues.

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## Topics

Homeland Security

AccountabilityAgency missionsCombating terrorismCritical infrastructureCritical infrastructure protectionEmergency managementEmergency preparednessEmergency responseEmergency response plansFederal agency reorganizationFinancial managementHomeland securityInternal controlsPerformance measuresProgram managementRisk assessmentRisk managementStrategic planningTerrorismTerroristsProgram goals or objectivesProgram implementationTransparency