Honoring Our Veterans

As we honor the service and sacrifice of our nation’s veterans on this Veteran’s Day, I hope you’ll join me in honoring the tens of thousands of veterans who serve our country as members of Department of Homeland Security.

DHS’ civilian workforce includes approximately 47,000 veterans, comprising 25 percent of all employees—including Deputy Secretary Jane Holl Lute—in addition to the 42,000 active duty members of the U.S. Coast Guard.

Every day, these men and women play a critical role in our nation’s security – guarding against terrorism, securing our borders, enforcing immigration laws, preparing for and responding to disasters, and strengthening our Department’s operations.

Monday, I joined President Obama as he signed an Executive Order establishing the Veterans Employment Initiative to increase employment opportunities in the federal government and help recently hired veterans succeed in their jobs.

Engaging veterans and veterans’ organizations at the Department continues to be one of my top priorities. We want and need veterans to lend their unique skills, experience, and clear commitment to service to our mission. That’s why we have set a goal to have 50,000 veterans on-board at the Department by 2012.

To help us achieve that goal, today we launched a new website specifically for veterans – www.dhs.gov/veterans. This one-stop-shop contains information about hiring and business opportunities for veterans, ways to get involved in community-based efforts like Citizen Corps, and special veteran programs such as Operation Warfighter and Wounded Warrior, which provide employment opportunities for severely wounded or recovering service members to assist their transition back to the military or civilian workforce.

We’re proud to have so many veterans at DHS contributing to our mission every day. On Veterans Day and every day throughout the year, let’s continue to give thanks to veterans, both inside and outside the Department, for all they've done to serve our country.

Janet Napolitano

Saluting the Contribution of Veterans to Our Department

Yesterday I had the honor of addressing more than a thousand of our nation’s veterans at the American Legion Annual Conference in Louisville, Kentucky.

Veterans hold a special place in our country, but they also hold a special place at the Department of Homeland Security. Roughly a quarter of our workforce consists of veterans, including more than 2,100 service-disabled veterans. Every day these men and women, who already have sacrificed so much for our nation, are helping achieve our mission to secure the country.

I told veterans gathered at the conference that we are firmly committed to increasing their ranks at DHS. Indeed, we have set a goal of employing 50,000 veterans at the Department by 2012. We are well on our way to achieve that goal – hiring 3,000 veterans since January of this year.

But our efforts aren’t just about numbers. We are also expanding partnerships and outreach to veterans across the United States. For example, we are creating greater opportunities for Veteran Owned Small Businesses and Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Businesses to do business with the Department. Last year, veteran-owned small businesses won more than $931 million in prime contracts from DHS.

And our first-ever job fair for veterans drew more than 750 participants this summer.

Through U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, we’ve also continued to grant citizenship to tens of thousands of our men and women in uniform who have become American citizens while at the same time serving in our Armed Forces. We will continue to do even more this year and in the future.

In Louisville, I thanked the American Legion, as well as the American Legion Auxiliary, for their strong support for programs like Citizen Corps, which is creating more prepared communities through service and citizen engagement.

I also called on the Legion to continue to support these and other efforts to help build a culture of preparedness and resiliency in America. That includes taking action to boost personal preparedness and spread the word about important resources like Ready.gov. This is especially important as we prepare for the possibility of an H1N1 outbreak this fall.

We must bring a sense of shared responsibility to this effort. Veterans are in a unique position to help us meet this challenge, as they’ve done throughout our nation’s history. We are proud to have them as members of the Department and critical partners in our nation’s homeland security mission.

Janet Napolitano

Protecting an Important Habitat Near St. Elizabeths

You may have read media accounts that our headquarters consolidation project at St. Elizabeths could endanger a pair of nesting bald eagles. But much of what has been written is inaccurate. In fact, we are taking great care to not disturb the eagles’ habitat. I want to take this opportunity to explain what the Department and the General Services Administration (GSA), which is developing the campus on our behalf, is doing to preserve the habitat.

The bald eagle is revered by the Department just as it is by all Americans. As the symbol of our country, it is on the Great Seal of the United States of America and is represented on the Department’s seal as well. From the outset, therefore, we have demonstrated an unwavering commitment to preserving the eagle habitat.

The eagles’ nest is not on the St. Elizabeths Campus property. However, GSA worked with the Fish and Wildlife Service in developing the project’s Master Plan to identify and preserve a buffer of land associated with the eagle habitat. The Environmental Impact Statement further determined that redevelopment of the St. Elizabeths West Campus would not have any kind of adverse impact on the eagles. Most importantly, there is no development planned in the buffer area.

A new access road for the 14,000 DHS employees who will work at St. Elizabeths will run along the western St. Elizabeths property line and through the National Park Service (NPS) Shepherd Parkway, directly adjacent to Route 295. The access road does not run through the protected zone for the eagles. Our plan has the access road located as close to the property line and route 295 as possible, which maximizes the distance from the eagle protection zone. GSA has offered to transfer the eagle protection acreage on the St. Elizabeths West Campus to the NPS as mitigation for the impact of the new access road running through their property.

We will monitor construction and development activities to ensure the habitat remains intact. And we will continue to responsibly develop St. Elizabeths to meet our mission, while respecting its rich heritage, its National Historic Landmark status, and all of our neighbors - including the residents of Ward 8 and our nesting eagles. We look forward to the day when the American and Department of Homeland Security flags will fly at St. Elizabeths along with the eagles.

Elaine Duke
Under Secretary, Management

The Department’s Five Responsibilities

When President-elect Obama nominated me to become our country’s third Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, I was warned that the vast Department was too cumbersome to lead; that the 225,000-strong workforce was too big to manage; that the 22 agencies with 22 corresponding missions that were brought together in 2003 were too disparate to meld into a coherent structure with a clear vision.

Yet, nearly five months into my tenure, the purpose of our Department is unambiguous: we must guard against terrorism; we must secure our borders; we must enforce our immigration laws; we must improve our readiness for, response to, and recovery from disasters; and we must unify the Department so that we can even more effectively carry out our mission.

On each of the five fronts, we have already made important strides.

Protecting the American people from terrorist threats is the founding principle of the Department and our highest priority. This is an effort where everyone--families and communities, first responders, the private sector, state and local governments, as well as the Department--must contribute. My approach is simple: direct every resource available towards prevention and preparedness, and ask Americans to live in a constant state of readiness, not a constant state of fear.

Since January, we have forged new partnerships with our international allies to provide more tools in the fight against terrorism. We have dedicated new resources to detect threats at our transportation hubs and protect our critical infrastructure. And, we are strengthening information-sharing efforts, working hand-in-hand with state, local and tribal law enforcement.

Fulfilling our mission also means securing our borders—our Southern border, our Northern border, and our air and sea ports. Every year, we apprehend and deport more than one million illegal immigrants, no doubt deterring countless more from trying to cross the border. Recently, we announced a new initiative to strengthen security on the Southwest border to disrupt the drug, cash and weapon smuggling that is helping to fuel cartel violence in Mexico.

When it comes to immigration, we need to facilitate legal immigration while we crack down on those who violate our nation’s laws. A few weeks ago, we issued new guidance to our agents in the field to focus our efforts on apprehending criminal illegal aliens and prosecuting employers who knowingly hire illegal workers. At the same time, we are committed to providing employers with the most up-to-date and effective resources to maintain a legal workforce. This new focus is drawing widespread praise--from law enforcement to the business community--because it addresses the root cause of illegal immigration.

As a nation, we must develop a more urgent sense of readiness. Hurricanes happen. Tornadoes happen. Floods happen. And as we recently experienced, so do health outbreaks like the H1N1 flu. The Department plays a critical role in helping communities in all stages of a disaster--preparation, response and long term recovery. Since January, we have worked in close coordination with state and local authorities to respond to severe storms in Arkansas, Kentucky, and Missouri and flooding in North Dakota and Minnesota. We have taken bold new steps to accelerate recovery efforts in the Gulf Coast region, streamlining decision making and consolidating offices to eliminate redundancies.

And we took immediate and aggressive steps to lead the federal government’s efforts to confront the H1N1 flu outbreak.

Finally, we must unify and mature our Department. Our goal is simple: one DHS, one enterprise, a shared vision, with integrated results-based operations. Through a consolidated headquarters, we are bringing 35 locations together. We have launched an expansive efficiency initiative that is leveraging the economies of scale in our Department in order to recover hundreds of millions of dollars and create a culture of responsibility and fiscal discipline.

Throughout these five priority areas, we are applying a series of cross-cutting approaches. We are bolstering cooperation with our partners at the local, tribal, state, federal and international levels; we are expanding our capabilities through the deployment of science and technology while developing and maturing new technologies for tomorrow; and we are maximizing efficiency to ensure every security dollar is spent in the most effective way.

We cannot afford to relent on any of these five fronts because together, they amount to our one overarching mission—a mission whose scope is massive, challenging, and humbling, but also a mission so straightforward and clear that it is contained in our name: securing the homeland.

Janet Napolitano

Michelle Obama Visits Homeland Security

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Efficiency Review

Today the Department took a major step forward to advance one of President Obama's most important goals – improving efficiency and transparency across the Federal government.

Efficiency is essential to effective governance. It helps reduce costs and ensure taxpayer money isn’t wasted. It improves performance and customer satisfaction. And it strengthens employee morale.

Over the next 120 days, we will begin implementing nearly two dozen initiatives to trim costs, streamline operations, eliminate duplication, and better manage resources across the Department.

This effort is the result of a comprehensive assessment by our Efficiency Review team, which worked with DHS components, offices, and employees to identify more than 700 initiatives – some immediate, some long-term – to improve efficiency and transparency.

Among the immediate changes we will make over the next 30 days:

• Eliminating all non-mission critical travel for employees and maximizing our use of conference calls and web-based training and meetings;
• Reducing subscriptions to professional publications and newspapers to lower costs and avoid duplication;
• Eliminating printing and distribution of all reports and documents that can be sent electronically or posted on-line.

Over the next 30 days, we will also begin using purchasing agreements to substantially save on office supplies. This may sound like a small matter, but by leveraging the Department's collective buying power, we can save up to $52 million on office supplies over the next five years.

We're also going to take action to improve how we track and monitor fuel usage for our vehicles. Over the next 60 days, we will begin implementing a new electronic tracking system that will help increase alternative fuel usage; guard against waste, fraud, and abuse; and optimize how we manage our fleet.

In addition, we will begin acquiring hybrid and alternative fuel vehicles over the next 120 days. We expect a 30 percent increase in fuel efficiency in large vehicles, and even greater efficiency in smaller vehicles as a result of this change.

To become more energy efficient, we will also begin implementing energy efficiencies at DHS offices across the country. Over the next 120 days, we will initiate a process to identify and move toward renewable energy technology and greater energy conservation, with a goal of saving $3 million per year.

Over the next 60 days, we will also implement a process to purchase computer software licenses as a single Department – as opposed to individual agencies. As a result, we expect to save over $47 million per year and $283 million over the next six years.

Finally, we’re going to take steps to streamline employee training and orientations, and reduce costs and backlogs associated with background checks for new employees.

This is just the beginning. In the coming months, we’ll announce even more initiatives to improve efficiency. I look forward to keeping you updated as we make these changes, which will result in a stronger, more effective DHS.

Janet Napolitano

Stimulating the Economy

As you may know, the President recently launched a new website – Recovery.gov – that allows the public to track how our taxpayer dollars are being spent under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (also known as the stimulus).

Recovery.gov reflects the President’s commitment to bring a new level of transparency and openness to government as we work to strengthen our economy. That is a commitment I share for our Department – and the reason we’ve created www.dhs.gov/recovery.

The stimulus provides more than $3 billion in new homeland security funding. This funding will be used to improve security at our borders, rebuild our Coast Guard fleet, expand technology, strengthen rail and transit security, and enhance emergency preparedness and response. It will also create thousands of new jobs.

Let me give you a concrete example:

On Thursday, the Transportation Security Administration announced that it will be using $1 billion in stimulus funds to deploy checked baggage and checkpoint explosive detection systems at airports across the country.

This technology will enhance our ability to screen passengers and their bags for bombs and IEDs – including liquid explosives – while improving security and convenience. At the same time, it will create more than 3,000 new jobs associated with the construction and deployment of these systems.

This is precisely the purpose of the stimulus – to protect the country, stimulate the economy, and keep people working.

More projects are in the pipeline and will be coming soon. I invite you to keep track of our progress at www.dhs.gov/recovery.

Janet Napolitano

Secretary Continues Her Tour of Components

February 6, 2009 – Secretary Napolitano visits U.S. Customs & Border Protection headquarters and meets with CBP employees.

February 5, 2009 – U.S. Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan (front) and Special Agent Gregory Tate (rear) brief Secretary Napolitano on the presidential limousine, nicknamed "The Beast."

Secretary Napolitano Meets with FEMA Staff

February 3, 2009 – Secretary Napolitano visits U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) headquarters and meets with FEMA employees.

First Week

Thank you for your comments to my first post. I appreciate the encouraging words of welcome.

As expected, my first full week has been busy.

I’ve continued to meet with directors of all seven of the Department’s operating components, visit their headquarters locations, and receive briefings on their activities.

I’ve been impressed by what I’ve seen so far – the caliber of the people who work at this Department, their professionalism, and their commitment to our mission.

As Secretary, I want to ensure that our Department continues to uphold the highest ethical standards. For this reason, I’ve ordered that every incoming DHS employee receive ethics training.

This week, I also sent recommendations to President Obama regarding the winter storms that impacted most of our nation’s Midwest and Northeast. He acted on those recommendations, issuing emergency declarations for Arkansas and Kentucky. This will ensure that federal aid flows to these areas. FEMA has been deeply engaged in this process. It began mobilizing assets and resources well ahead of the storm to ensure timely aid and assistance.

Of course, I’ve been intently focused on preparations for Super Bowl 43, and not just because my home team is in the game.

I spoke directly with our head of security in Tampa and received briefings on the Department’s activities related to the Super Bowl, which are extensive.

Finally, I’ve continued to issue action directives to assess the Department's critical functions and set priorities. We rolled out the final action directive today on immigration – to assess our progress to secure the border, remove criminal aliens from the United States, and improve our legal immigration procedures.

I’m eager to get the results of these assessments in the coming days and weeks, and I look forward to sharing these results with you.

Secretary Napolitano

Secretary Napolitano Meets with Department Agency Staff

January 29, 2009 – Secretary Napolitano meets with senior leadership from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Pictured are Secretary Napolitano; Acting Assistant Secretary John Torres; Marcy Forman, Director Office of Investigations; and Susan Lane, Director Office of Intelligence. (ICE Photo/Caffrey)


January 27, 2009 - Secretary Napolitano greets employees at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services headquarters in Washington, D.C., where she received briefings from the three USCIS directorates. (USCIS Photo/Buckson)


January 26, 2009 - Secretary Napolitano visits the Transportation Security Administration headquarters and conducted a town hall with TSA employees. (TSA Photo/Dittberner)


January 22, 2009 - Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano meets with Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thad W. Allen at Coast Guard Headquarters, for briefings from the service's senior leadership. (USCG Photo/Bender)

Getting to Work

I’d like to take this opportunity to welcome you to the DHS Leadership Journal, our online forum for discussing issues and challenges facing the Department of Homeland Security as we work to keep our nation safe. I plan to be a regular contributor along with other senior leadership across the Department.

First, I’d like to recognize Secretary Chertoff and his team for the work they have done to ensure a smooth transition. I am honored to join Homeland Security and continue the important work begun by my predecessors to protect our borders, safeguard our infrastructure, and improve our nation’s abilities to prevent, respond to, and recover from natural and manmade hazards.

One of my first priorities as Secretary will be to meet with as many of the Department’s leaders and employees as possible. This past week, I met with leadership from each DHS component and will be visiting each of our headquarters in the coming days. On Thursday, I had the opportunity to visit with many of the men and women of the U.S. Coast Guard and received an in-depth briefing from Admiral Allen about major issues facing this agency. I look forward to similar visits to other components this week including TSA, ICE and USCIS.

I also initiated a process to assess and solicit employee input about the Department’s performance across what I see as its five core mission areas: protection, preparedness, response, recovery, and immigration. These “Action Directives” will measure the Department’s effectiveness at meeting its critical functions, from protecting our transportation systems and critical infrastructure to distributing homeland security grants, assessing risk, and sharing intelligence with our state, local, and tribal partners.

Our goal is to identify those areas that require immediate attention, develop strategies to address short-term needs and long-term goals, and provide clear, consistent direction on how we can more fully unify the Department. DHS has come a long way in its short history. Through these Action Directives, we can continue to focus on growth, integration and greater efficiencies.

There is no more important function of government than the protection of its people. Over the past few days, I’ve seen the dedication of the men and women in this Department in action. In the weeks and months ahead, we will continue to meet this challenge head-on, with the sense of urgency and purpose our citizens expect and our nation’s security requires. It is time to get to work.

Janet Napolitano

Secretary, U.S. Department of Homeland Security