Starting his third month in Congress, freshman U.S. Rep. John Rutherford, R-Fla., has already established a good relationship with the chairman of the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee as the Florida Republican is starting to make his mark on Capitol Hill.
Rutherford is offering a proposal to give Congress far more oversight of wasteful spending in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
With a background in law enforcement, including serving three terms as the sheriff of Duval County, Rutherford sits on the House Homeland Security which is chaired by U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas.
Towards the end of last week, Rutherford brought out the “Reducing Department of Homeland Security Acquisition Cost Growth Act” with McCaul as the first co-sponsor. The proposal would, according to Rutherford’s office, “hold DHS agencies more accountable in administering their major acquisition programs and would give Congress greater oversight of troubled programs to prevent wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars by agencies like the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).”
The First Coast Republican made the case for why his bill was needed, pointing to reports from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the DHS Office of the Inspector General which showed DHS has had major problems with major acquisition programs, leaving taxpayers on the book for more than $7 billion. Rutherford also noted a GAO report from 2015 which “found that 20 out of 22 major acquisition programs experienced cost growth, schedule slips, or both” and these programs are “highly susceptible to waste and mismanagement.”
“The Department of Homeland Security’s acquisition programs represent hundreds of billions of dollars in spending, but they repeatedly face cost overruns and schedule delays,” Rutherford said when he introduced the bill. “When DHS fails to properly manage these programs efficiently, taxpayer dollars are wasted instead of going toward providing the necessary tools for FEMA, the U.S. Coast Guard, and Customs and Border Protection to do their jobs – keeping Americans safe. My bill would prevent waste of taxpayer dollars by ensuring that Congress can provide greater oversight of major acquisition programs and can implement solutions to quickly address any setbacks or cost growth. I thank Chairman McCaul for co-sponsoring this bill and helping DHS take the right steps to change the culture of wasteful spending.”
“I commend Congressman Rutherford’s work in introducing legislation to increase congressional oversight of the Department of Homeland Security’s major acquisition programs that fail to meet cost, schedule, or performance requirements,” said McCaul. “Improving the accountability of these programs will save taxpayer dollars and ensure that frontline operators get the tools they need to better protect our homeland.”
The bill was sent to the House Homeland Security Committee last week. There’s no Senate version yet.
McCaul turned to Rutherford on another matter at the end of last month, choosing the First Coast Republican to serve on the Task Force on Denying Terrorists Entry into the United States.
Rutherford, who also sits on the Border and Maritime Security Subcommittee and Emergency Preparedness and Response Subcommittee, is one of five Republicans who joined three Democrats on the new task force. The First Coast congressman is the only member of the Florida delegation on the task force which will be led by U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wisc.
According to the Homeland Security Committee, the task force “will examine all pathways by which extremists might infiltrate the homeland and will seek to identify gaps in U.S. government information sharing and vetting procedures.” The group will start its work in March and send a report to the Homeland Security Committee.
“In the current threat environment, stopping terrorists will continue to be a top committee priority,” McCaul said when he announced the launch of the task force at the end of February. “Closing gaps in our counterterrorism screening and vetting procedures is especially important in the face of continuing global instability and the desire of ISIS and other terrorist groups to strike the West. The task force members have a difficult mission ahead of them, but the threat is real and we must act in close coordination with the administration to best protect Americans from those who wish us harm.”
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