DHS Multi-Agency Operation Centers Would Benefit from Taking Further Steps to Enhance Collaboration and Coordination
Gao ID: GAO-07-686R April 5, 2007This letter addresses the conference report to H.R. 5441 and Senate Report 109-273, which directs GAO to (1) analyze the role of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) National Operations Center and DHS component operations centers and (2) make recommendations regarding the operation and coordination of these centers. On March 1 and 13, 2007, we met with House and Senate Committee staff, respectively, to brief them on completed and ongoing GAO work that addresses these issues. Both House and Senate staff agreed that this information addresses the appropriations mandates and their related concerns regarding DHS's operations centers. We primarily relied on a prior GAO report on DHS multi-agency operations centers to satisfy these mandates. In our completed review, we specifically examined (1) the missions, products, functions, and customers of the multi-agency DHS operations centers that operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year (24/7/365), and (2) DHS's implementation of key practices for enhancing and sustaining collaboration at these multi-agency centers. We also have work underway that includes an assessment of DHS's plans for consolidating its real property holdings in the National Capital Region, including the National Operations Center and component operations centers. This letter and the accompanying enclosure transmit the information provided during those briefings to House and Senate staff.
The four multi-agency operations centers each have their own mission and generate different products while performing some similar functions and sharing a number of customers. The missions of the Air and Marine Operations Center, National Targeting Center, and Transportation Security Operations Center are distinctive and tactical, including such activities as monitoring the nation's airspace, the movement of potential terrorists, and the passengers on commercial flights. The National Operations Center-Interagency Watch's mission is more strategic in that it collects information gathered by the other multi-agency operations centers and provides a national perspective on situational awareness for potential terrorist activity. The products of the four multi-agency operations centers reflect their different missions and range from reports on suspicious private air and marine craft from the Air and Marine Operations Center, individuals entering the country at land, sea, and airports from the National Targeting Center, and individuals traveling on commercial flights from the Transportation Security Operations Center, to an overview of the national threat environment from the National Operations Center-Interagency Watch. The multi-agency operations centers all share common functions such as maintaining situational awareness, sharing information, and communications; coordinating internal operations, and coordinating among federal, state, local, tribal, and private-sector entities; and managing incidents and making decisions. In addition, the Air and Marine Operations Center and National Operations Center-Interagency Watch conduct operational command and control and, along with the National Targeting Center, coordinate with foreign governments. The four multi-agency operations centers' primary customers include other federal agencies, and state and local governments; private-sector entities; and some foreign governments.
GAO-07-686R, DHS Multi-Agency Operation Centers Would Benefit from Taking Further Steps to Enhance Collaboration and Coordination
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United States Government Accountability Office:
Washington, DC 20548:
April 5, 2007:
The Honorable Robert C. Byrd:
Chairman:
The Honorable Thad Cochran:
Ranking Member:
Subcommittee on Homeland Security:
Committee on Appropriations:
United States Senate:
The Honorable David E. Price:
Chairman:
The Honorable Harold Rogers:
Ranking Member:
Subcommittee on Homeland Security:
Committee on Appropriations:
House of Representatives:
Subject: DHS Multi-Agency Operation Centers Would Benefit from Taking
Further Steps to Enhance Collaboration and Coordination:
This letter addresses the conference report to H.R. 5441 and Senate
Report 109-273, which directs GAO to (1) analyze the role of the
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) National Operations Center and
DHS component operations centers and (2) make recommendations regarding
the operation and coordination of these centers.[Footnote 1] On March 1
and 13, 2007, we met with House and Senate Committee staff,
respectively, to brief them on completed and ongoing GAO work that
addresses these issues (see encl.) Both House and Senate staff agreed
that this information addresses the appropriations mandates and their
related concerns regarding DHS's operations centers.
We primarily relied on a prior GAO report on DHS multi-agency
operations centers to satisfy these mandates. In our completed review,
we specifically examined (1) the missions, products, functions, and
customers of the multi-agency DHS operations centers that operate 24
hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year (24/7/365), and (2)
DHS's implementation of key practices for enhancing and sustaining
collaboration at these multi-agency centers.[Footnote 2] We also have
work underway that includes an assessment of DHS's plans for
consolidating its real property holdings in the National Capital
Region, including the National Operations Center and component
operations centers. This letter and the accompanying enclosure transmit
the information provided during those briefings to House and Senate
staff.
To answer our first objective, we analyzed information obtained from
the responsible component agencies and DHS's Operations
Directorate[Footnote 3] on the mission and functions of all of the 24/
7/365 activities in DHS. Our work identified a total of 20 national and
5 regional DHS centers that conduct 24/7/365 activities. Of these, 21
centers employ staff from only one DHS agency on a regular full-time
basis and perform agency-specific functions; therefore, we did not
perform a detailed analysis of the collaboration and coordination
practices at these centers and did not direct our recommendations to
them. The four multi-agency operations centers in DHS that met the 24/
7/365 criteria used in our study are the U.S. Customs and Border
Protection's Air and Marine Operations Center and National Targeting
Center, the Transportation Security Administration's Transportation
Security Operations Center, and the National Operations Center-
Interagency Watch (previously the Homeland Security Operations Center).
We visited all four multi-agency centers, as well as centers operated
by other component agencies,[Footnote 4] to observe their operations,
interview officials responsible for managing the centers, and identify
centers that employed staff from multiple DHS agencies. From the four
multi-agency centers, we obtained additional information on both the
products the centers regularly developed and their primary customers.
We also interviewed several staff assigned to centers from
participating DHS component agencies--referred to as watchstanders--to
discuss their roles and responsibilities at the centers and the overall
mission of the centers to which they had been assigned.
To answer our second objective, we reviewed transition, management
integration, and planning and policy documents, as well as strategic
plans, annual performance reports, and planning documents from DHS and
its component agencies. We met with the acting director and other
responsible officials from the Operations Directorate to discuss its
role and responsibilities. We also reviewed and analyzed the results of
studies undertaken by DHS to assess and improve coordination and
collaboration at the multi-agency centers. We examined reports from
GAO, the Congressional Research Service, the DHS Office of Inspector
General, and others that addressed the integration, coordination, and
collaboration of departmentwide program functions. We then assessed
DHS's efforts related to integration, coordination, and collaboration
at the multi-agency centers to determine the extent to which they
reflect DHS's application of the key practices we have found to help
enhance and sustain collaboration among federal agencies and be at the
center of successful mergers and transformations.[Footnote 5]
We conducted our work from October 2005 through September 2006 in
accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards.
Summary:
The four multi-agency operations centers each have their own mission
and generate different products while performing some similar functions
and sharing a number of customers.
* The missions of the Air and Marine Operations Center, National
Targeting Center, and Transportation Security Operations Center are
distinctive and tactical, including such activities as monitoring the
nation's airspace, including such activities as monitoring the nation's
airspace, the movement of potential terrorists, and the passengers on
commercial flights. The National Operations Center-Interagency Watch's
mission is more strategic in that it collects information gathered by
the other multi-agency operations centers and provides a national
perspective on situational awareness for potential terrorist activity.
* The products of the four multi-agency operations centers reflect
their different missions and range from reports on suspicious private
air and marine craft from the Air and Marine Operations Center,
individuals entering the country at land, sea, and airports from the
National Targeting Center, and individuals traveling on commercial
flights from the Transportation Security Operations Center, to an
overview of the national threat environment from the National
Operations Center-Interagency Watch.
* The multi-agency operations centers all share common functions such
as maintaining situational awareness, sharing information, and
communications; coordinating internal operations, and coordinating
among federal, state, local, tribal, and private-sector entities; and
managing incidents and making decisions. In addition, the Air and
Marine Operations Center and National Operations Center-Interagency
Watch conduct operational command and control and, along with the
National Targeting Center, coordinate with foreign governments.
* The four multi-agency operations centers' primary customers include
other federal agencies, and state and local governments; private-sector
entities; and some foreign governments.
DHS has leveraged its resources--one key collaborative practice--by
having staff from multiple agencies work together at the four
operations centers. However, DHS could further implement this and other
relevant practices previous GAO work has identified as important to
enhancing and sustaining collaboration among federal agencies and
improving agency performance. Without implementing these practices,
DHS's operations centers may not be collaborating as effectively as
they could. Given that the collaboration in multi-agency operations
centers focuses on gathering and disseminating information on real-time
situational awareness related to disasters and possible terrorist
activity, it is important that the staff at the centers achieve the
most effective collaboration possible.
The following information outlines in more detail the extent to which
multi-agency centers have implemented the collaboration and
coordination practices we identified to enhance their effectiveness.
Specifically, not all of the components responsible for managing the
operation centers have:
* established goals to define and articulate a common outcome and
mutually reinforcing or joint strategies for collaboration (related to
two of our key practices);
* assessed staffing needs to leverage resources;
* defined roles and responsibilities of watchstanders from agencies
other than the managing one;
* applied standards, policies, and procedures for DHS's information-
sharing network to provide a means to operate across agency boundaries;
* prepared mechanisms to monitor, evaluate, and report on results of
the operations centers to reinforce collaborative efforts; and:
* reinforced agency accountability for collaboration efforts through
agency plans and reports.
For example, some DHS components have established a variety of internal
and external working agreements, memorandums, and in the case of the
Joint Field Offices,[Footnote 6] standard operating procedures.
However, DHS's Operations Directorate, which is responsible for
coordinating operations, had not provided guidance on how and when such
agreements should be used to improve collaboration among the sponsoring
and participating components at the operations centers we reviewed. Nor
had any of these centers documented goals or joint strategies using
these or other types of agreements. Without having a documented joint
strategy for collaboration, there is a risk that center staff
monitoring potential terrorist activities may not operate in the most
collaborative manner.
DHS had also not assessed staffing needs to leverage resources and help
ensure that there are enough watchstanders, who occupy the primary
positions at the multi-agency operations centers, to conduct
surveillance activities. While three of the four multi-agency
operations centers had developed descriptions for the watchstander
position staffed by their own agency, only one center--the Air and
Marine Operations Center--had also developed a position description for
staff assigned to the center from another DHS agency. The other centers
relied on the components providing staff to define their watchstanders'
roles and responsibilities. Lack of a consistent definition for the
watchstander position may lead to people at the same center in the same
role performing the same responsibilities differently or not at all.
Because of the potentially critical, time-sensitive need for decisive
action at 24/7/365 operations centers, it is important that the roles
and responsibilities of watchstanders are described and understood by
both the staff and the officials responsible for managing the
operations centers.
In another example, DHS had not provided the standards, policies, and
procedures for the use of its Homeland Security Information Network,
its primary information-sharing tool. Without the application of the
standards, policies, and procedures, users were unsure of how to use
the network and, therefore, did not maximize the operation centers'
capacity for sharing security-related information.
In terms of monitoring, evaluating, and reporting the results of joint
efforts at the multi-agency operations centers, in January 2004, the
Air and Marine Operations Center began collecting data to measure
productivity, but had not yet evaluated efforts, and the rest of the
multi-agency centers have not developed any methods for evaluating and
reporting results.
Finally, neither DHS nor the multi-agency operations centers have
reinforced accountability for collaborative efforts through joint
agency planning and reporting. Such public accounting through published
strategic and annual performance plans and reports makes agencies
answerable for collaboration results.
The Operations Directorate, established in November 2005 to improve
operational efficiency and coordination, provides DHS with an
opportunity to more fully implement the key practices that are
important to enhancing and sustaining collaboration at its multi-agency
operations centers. Although the Operations Directorate does not
possess administrative, budgetary, or operational control over the
other component's operations centers, guidance from the Operations
Directorate could help the other components responsible for the 24/7/
365 multi-agency operations centers make key advances in each
collaborative practice.
To enhance collaboration at 24/7/365 operations centers staffed by
multiple components, we recommended that the Director of the Operations
Directorate should develop and provide guidance as well as help to
ensure the component agencies take the following six actions:
* define common goals and joint strategies;
* conduct staffing needs assessments;
* clarify the roles and responsibilities of staff known as
watchstanders;
* implement standards, policies, and procedures for using DHS's
information network to provide a means of operating across agency
boundaries;
* implement mechanisms to monitor, evaluate, and report on the results
of collaborative efforts; and:
* address collaborative efforts at the four multi-agency operations
centers in plans and reports.
In reviewing a draft of the report in 2006, DHS agreed with the
recommended actions to enhance collaboration at the DHS multi-agency
operations centers. Among other things, DHS noted plans to conduct an
independent study in September 2006, to leverage technical and
analytical expertise to support expanding the capabilities of the
Operations Directorate. In addition, DHS said it planned to move
elements of the National Operations Center to the Transportation
Security Operations Center (TSOC) in 2007 and, ultimately to collocate
the DHS headquarters, and all the DHS component headquarters along with
their respective staffs and operations centers, at one location. Since
our report was issued, DHS has taken additional steps toward these
objectives. We agreed that these leadership efforts provided by the
Operations Directorate could further enhance collaboration among DHS's
component agencies, along with the key practices suggested by our
review of collaboration practices among agencies across the federal
government.
If your office or staff has any questions concerning this report,
please contact me at (202) 512-6510 or by e-mail at Larencee@gao.gov.
Signed by:
Eileen Larence:
Director, Homeland Security and Justice Issues:
Enclosure:
[End of section]
Enclosure: Briefing Slides:
Department of Homeland Security: Coordination of Operations Centers:
Briefing for House and Senate Appropriations Committees:
Contents:
Mandates:
Completed and Ongoing GAO Reviews:
DHS Plans for Consolidating Facilities:
National Operations Center's Role and Mission:
Component Operations Centers' Roles and Missions:
Mandates:
Congressional Report Language:
H.R. Rep. No. 109-699 (Conf. Rep.) and S. Rep. No. 109-273 direct GAO
to:
1. analyze the role of the National Operations Center (previously the
Homeland Security Operations Center) and the numerous DHS component
operations centers and:
2. make recommendations regarding the operation and coordination of
these centers.
In November 2006, House and Senate appropriations staff identified
additional areas of interest:
* the number of current "Headquarters Centers" (as opposed to the local
or regional component centers);
* the roles of the centers, and any overlap/duplication of
responsibilities and functions; and:
* the "St. Elizabeth's plan" by which DHS hopes to consolidate centers
into the National Operations Center (NOC).
Completed and Ongoing GAO Reviews:
Work GAO performed for the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs Committee addresses some of the issues cited in mandate
language and areas of interest cited in discussions with appropriations
staff.
* Completed Work: Homeland Security. Opportunities Exist to Enhance
Collaboration at 24/7 Operations Centers Staffed b Multiple DHS
Agencies, GAO-07-89, October 2006:
- addresses mandate questions regarding the role of the national and
component operations centers and staff interest in the number of
centers, and:
- partially addresses mandate request for recommendations regarding the
operation and coordination of these centers and staff interest in
overlap of responsibilities and functions (report focuses on 4 of the
21 operations centers).
Work currently underway for the Senate Homeland Security and
Governmental Affairs Committee addresses some of the issues cited in
mandate language and areas of interest cited in subsequent discussions
with appropriations staff.
* GAO Review of DHS Real Property Management and Security, code 543163
(planned issuance date May 2007):
- addresses staff interest in the "St. Elizabeth's plan" by which DHS
hopes to consolidate centers into the National Operations Center and:
- partially addresses mandate request for recommendations regarding the
coordination of these centers.
Completed and Ongoing GAO Reviews Completed Review: GAO-07-89
Objectives and Scope:
Homeland Security: Opportunities Exist to Enhance Collaboration at 24/
7 Operations Centers Staffed by Multiple DHS Agencies:
Objectives:
* What are the missions, products, and functions of the multi-agency
24/7/365 DHS operations centers and who are their customers?
* To what extent has DHS implemented key practices for enhancing and
sustaining collaboration at these multi-agency centers?
Scope:
* Used 24/7/365 operations to define universe:
* Identified a total of 20 national and 5 re regional DHS centers that
conduct 24/7/365 activities. Of these, 2 centers employ staff from only
one DHS a agency on a regular full-time basis and perform agency-
specific functions.
* Focused our analysis on the 4 centers staffed by more than 1 DHS
component.
Ongoing and Completed GAO Reviews Completed Review: GAO-07-89
Methodology:
Methodology:
* Interviewed officials from DHS's Operations Directorate and other 4
multi-agency centers:
* Reviewed:
- transition, management integration, and planning and policy
documents;
- information on missions, products, functions, and customers;
- strategic plans and annual performance reports and planning documents
from DHS and its component agencies; and:
- studies that addressed the integration, coordination, and
collaboration of department wide program functions.
Ongoing and Completed GAO Reviews:
Completed Review: GAO-07-89 Findings:
Findings:
The four multi-agency operations centers each have their own mission
and generate different products while performing some similar functions
and sharing a number of customers.
Missions:
* The missions of CBP's Air and Marine Operations Center (AMOC) and
National Tar Targeting Center (NTC), and TSA's Transportation Security
Operations Center (TSOC) are tactical, including such activities as
monitoring the nation s airspace, the movement of potential terrorists,
and the passengers on commercial flights, respectively.
* The National Operations Center (NOC-Watch) mission is more strategic
in that it collects information gathered by the other multi-agency
operations centers and provides a national perspective on situational
awareness for potential terrorist activity.
Products: The products of the four multi-agency operations centers
reflect their different missions an range from reports on suspicious
private air and marine craft from the AMOC, individuals:
entering the country at land sea and airports from the NTC, and
individuals traveling on commercial flights from the TSOC, to an
overview of the national threat environment from the NOC-Watch.
Functions: The multi-agency operations centers all share common
functions such as maintaining situational awareness, information
sharing and communications; coordinating internal operations, and
coordinating among federal, state, local, tribal, and private-sector
entities; and managing incidents and making decisions. In addition, the
AMOC and NOC-Watch exercise operational command and control and, along
with the NTC, coordinate with foreign governments.
Customers: The four multi-agency operations centers' primary customers
include federal, state, and local governments; private-sector entities;
and some foreign governments.
Ongoing and Completed GAO Reviews:
Completed Review: GAO-07-89 Recommendations:
Recommendations:
To enhance collaboration at 24/7 operations centers staffed by multiple
components, the Director of the Operations Directorate should develop
and provide guidance and help to ensure the component agencies take the
following six actions:
(1) define common goals and joint strategies;
(2) clarify the roles and responsibilities of staff known as
watchstanders;
(3) implement compatible standards, policies, and procedures for using
DHS's information network to provide a means of operating across agency
boundaries;
(4) conduct staffing needs assessments;
(5) implement mechanisms to monitor, evaluate, and report on the
results of collaborative efforts; and:
(6) address collaborative efforts at the four multi-agency operations
centers in plans and reports on the level of each operation center's
managing agency.
Ongoing and Completed GAO Reviews Ongoing Review of DHS Real Property
Management Objectives:
GAO Review: DHS Real Property Management and Security:
* Objectives:
(1) What is the profile of DHS real property portfolio, including the
total number of properties and the number of owned versus leased
properties?
(2) What actions has DHS taken to strategically manage its real
property assets and ensure that they are aligned to its mission?
(3) What plans, if any, does DHS have to consolidate its headquarters
in Washington, D.C.?
(4) What actions has DHS taken to ensure the physical security of its
facilities?
Ongoing and Completed GAO Reviews Ongoing Review of DHS Real Property
Management Scope and Methodology:
GAO Review: DHS Real Property Management and Security:
* Scope and Methodology:
(1) To profile DHS's real property portfolio, we will rely on data in
DHS's real property portfolio database, data in the General Service
Administration's (GSA) Federal Real Property Profile, and interviews
with DHS and GSA real property data officials.
(2) To evaluate DHS's real property management efforts, we will assess
actions taken with regard to the President's real property initiative
and consider related asset management principles.
(3) To determine DHS's headquarters consolidation challenges, we will
interview DHS and GSA real property officials and stakeholders such as
the National Capital Planning Commission and DC Office of Planning. We
will also review DHS's DC area strategic housing plan and GSA's draft
Master Plan alternatives.
(4) To describe DHS's facility protection efforts, we will interview
DHS and GSA security officials and review related documentation.
DHS Plans for Consolidating Facilities Housing Master Plan Excerpts:
Department of Homeland Security: National Capital Region Housing Master
Plan, "Building a Unified Department" October 2006 (as required by H.R.
Rep. No. 109-476, (2006)) excerpts:
* "The Department proposes to secure and strengthen DHS operations by
unifying our core headquarters facilities with those of our operating
components. This consolidated facility would be located at the St.
Elizabeth's West Campus."
* "To support port the incident management and command-and-control
requirements of our mission, the Department clearly needs to
consolidate executive leadership and operational management in a secure
setting."
* "...organizational benefits that can only be achieved by collectively
realigning all of our real property holdings. [include] an urgent need
to expand the Department's National Operations Center and certain
intelligence analytic capabilities, and then to collocate them as close
as possible with various operations centers and intelligence analytic
capabilities currently maintained by DHS's seven operating components
at diverse locations. Integration will bring significant operational
discipline and improved capability."
DHS Plans for Consolidating Facilities 2008 Congressional Justification
Excerpts:
"...in order to truly consolidate the Department's headquarters
functions in addition to the front offices of its component agencies to
realize a "One-DHS," DHS seeks to re-locate most of its headquarters
operations to the St. Elizabeth's West Campus."
"Base level funding or the DHS Consolidated Campus initiative at St.
Elizabeth's is 120 million. DHS did not receive any funding for this
project in the DHS FY 2007 Appropriations bill..."
"Without the additional funds to construct a consolidated secure DHS
Campus, the Department will continue to sub-optimize performance
because of ineffective and inefficient facilities that adversely impact
coordination, communication and cooperation DHS components."
National Operations Center's Role and Mission:
The National Operations Center incorporates the 24/7/365 National
Operations Center-Interagency Watch (NOC-Watch), the Office of
Intelligence and Analysis, the Federal Emergency Management Agency's
National Response Coordination Center, and an office called the
Planning Element. The National Operations Center also shares
responsibility for the National Infrastructure Coordination Center
which is co-located and integrated as a watch function at the
Transportation Security Operations Center.
Prior to May 25, 2006, the NOC-Watch was analogous to the Homeland
Security Operations Center. The Interagency Watch also incorporates
staff from DHS's Offices of Information & Analysis, Infrastructure
Protection, and Incident Management Division, as well as a variety of
other DHS and non-DHS organizations.
The NOC-Watch is to act as the primary national-level hub for domestic
situational awareness, common operating picture combining and sharing
of information, communications, and operations coordination pertaining
to the prevention of terrorist attacks and domestic incident management
by facilitating information sharing with other federal, state, local,
tribal, and nongovernmental emergency operations centers; and by fusing
law enforcement, national intelligence, emergency response, and private-
sector reporting.
To enhance coordination among the components, a February 1, 2007, DHS
Policy for Internal Information Exchange and Sharing requires that all
homeland security information be coordinated through the National
Operations Center's Office of Intelligence and Analysis, specifically:
* "that each component conduct an immediate review of its existing
information-handling procedures and ensure that appropriate mechanisms
are in place to provide the Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A)
with access to all potential terrorism, homeland security, law
enforcement, and related information..."
Component Operations Centers' Roles and Missions Other DHS HQ
Operations Centers:
The United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT)
coordinates defense against and responses to cyber attacks across the
nation. Specifically, US-CERT is responsible for:
* analyzing and reducing cyber threats and vulnerabilities;
* disseminating cyber threat warning information; and:
* coordinating incident response activities by working with federal
agencies, industry, the research community, state and local
governments, and others to disseminate cyber security information to
the public.
National Coordinating Center for Telecommunications assists in the
initiation, coordination, restoration, and reconstitution of national
security and emergency preparedness telecommunications services or
facilities. During emergencies, staff:
* assess anticipated/actual damage,
* identify national security and/or emergency preparedness service
requirements,
* prioritize requirements,
* monitor the developing situation/response, and:
* coordinate service provisioning and restoration as required.
Component Operations Centers' Roles and Missions TSA:
Transportation Security Administration (TSA):
* TSA Office of Intelligence provides warning and intelligence analysis
to inform field operators, industry, and TSA leadership and serves as a
liaison between the intelligence community and the air carriers who use
the terrorist watch list information in their prescreening of
passengers. Specifically, the Office of Intelligence:
- receives watch list data from the Terrorist Screening Center,
- prepares it for distribution to the air carriers, and:
- sends it to the Transportation Security Operations Center.
* Federal Air Marshal Service, Mission Operations Control Center
provides support for scheduling law enforcement situations crisis
management, and safety and security-related matters. Specifically, the
center:
- controls daily operations,
- tracks federal air marshal teams worldwide,
- provides guidance to federal air marshal to help resolve incidents,
and:
* monitors ongoing missions.
Component Operations Centers' Roles and Missions CBP:
Customs and Border Protection (CBE):
* Situation Room provides information on significant incidents from
field and sector offices, providing situational awareness to the
Commissioner and senior CBP management. Specifically, staff:
- collect and verify information,
- provide a central contact point for field personnel, and:
- ensure accurate information gets to CBP leadership.
* National Law Enforcement Communications Center monitors radio
communications among CBP personnel for officer safety purposes, and to
coordinate tactical communications and analytical investigative support
to various DHS and other law enforcement agencies to support homeland
security. Center staff also:
- design, install, and maintain networks for tactical communications
and all classified messages and:
- oversee all CBP communications security.
Component Operations Centers' Roles and Missions ICE:
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE):
* ICE Operations Center provides senior management with daily reports
and coordination on all significant incidents, events, and matters that
have an impact on the mission of ICE and DHS.
* ICE Intelligence Watch provides timely, effective classified
intelligence support to ICE headquarters and field personnel by serving
as a clearinghouse for the screening, evaluation, processing,
exploitation, dissemination, and coordination of intelligence
information.
* Law Enforcement Support Center provides timely immigration status and
identification information to federal, state, and local law enforcement
agencies on aliens suspected, arrested, or convicted of criminal
activity.
Component Operations Centers' Roles and Missions FEMA and Secret
Service:
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA):
* National Response Coordination Center maintains national situational
awareness and monitors emerging incidents or potential incidents with
possible operational consequences (Incorporated into the NOC):
* FEMA Operations Center facilitates, in coordination with the NOC, the
distribution of warnings, alerts, and bulletins to the entire emergency
management community using a variety of communications systems.
United States Secret Service (USSS):
* Joint Operations Center provides command, control, communication, and
monitoring for ensuring the security of the White House complex and
surrounding grounds.
* Intelligence Division Duty Desk coordinates communications for the
receipt, coordination, and dissemination of protective intelligence
information and activities that require immediate action in support of
protection assignments.
Component Operations Centers' Roles and Missions Coast Guard:
United States Coast Guard (USCG):
* U.S. Coast Guard Command Center gathers, coordinates, and
disseminates information as the primary communications link of priority
operational and administrative matters between USCG field units,
District and Area Commanders, senior Coast Guard officials, DHS
officials, the White House, other federal agencies, state and local
officials, and foreign governments.
* Intelligence Coordination Center (collocated at Command Center)
national-level coordination for collection, analysis, production, and
dissemination of Coast Guard intelligence.
* National Response Center serves as the single federal point of
contact for all pollution incident reporting and a communications
center in receiving, evaluating, and relaying information to
predesignated federal responders, and advises FEMA of potential major
disaster situations.
[End of section]
FOOTNOTES
[1] See H.R. Rep. No. 109-699, at 123 (2006) (Conf. Rep.) (accompanying
H.R. 5441, subsequently enacted into law as the Department of Homeland
Security Appropriations Act, 2007, Pub. L. No. 109-295, 120 Stat. 1355
(2006)). See also S. Rep. No. 109-273, at 18 (2006).
[2] GAO, Homeland Security: Opportunities Exist to Enhance
Collaboration at 24/7 Operations Centers Staffed by Multiple DHS
Agencies, GAO-07-89 (Washington, D.C.: Oct. 20, 2006).
[3] DHS established the Operations Directorate in November 2005 to
improve operational efficiency and coordination.
[4] These other components include the Federal Emergency Management
Agency, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the U.S. Secret Service.
[5] GAO, Results-Oriented Government: Practices That Can Help Enhance
and Sustain Collaboration among Federal Agencies, GAO-06-15
(Washington, D.C.: Oct. 21, 2005).
[6] The JFO is a temporary federal multi-agency coordination center
established locally to facilitate field-level domestic incident
management activities related to prevention, preparedness, response and
recovery.
