Speech #1140084947

In 2003. the Department of Homeland Security was cobbled together from 22 different offices and agenciesa very huge logistical and management challenge. We knew that there would be significant growing pains before that agency would function well and as a unified department. Each component of the Department. be it Customs and Border Protection or Immigration and Customs Enforcement or the U.S. Coast Guard. has a tendency to sort of operate in their own silo. without the coordination required to make border and maritime security efforts as successful as they should be and can be. This has had a negative effect. actually. on logistics. on communications. and. most importantly. on operations. In an attempt to adopt a better structure with a goal of enhancing border security and maritime security operations. this legislation. Mr. Speaker. authorizes joint task forces on border security. The goal of these task forces is to improve border security outcomes. and this legislation provides explicit authority to guide the task force operations and to allow this pilot concept to be utilized to secure our borders. While this concept is not unique. we intentionally provided a sunset date for the joint task force authority to give the next administration the opportunity to come back to the Homeland Security Committee and to the next Congress to demonstrate that this organizational structure has really contributed to border security. and it is not just simply another layer of bureaucracy. The second part of this bill. Mr.