Page 137

individuals wielding acting Secretary authority should have explicit authority to finalize agency actions, including regulations, to ensure that the department’s homeland security mission is fulfilled.

Soft Closure of Unnecessary Offices. Pending a possible presidential decision to shrink or eliminate DHS itself, the next Administration will still have the obligation to protect the homeland as required by law. The Secretary therefore can and should use his or her inherent, discretionary leadership authority to “soft close” ineffective and problematic corners of the department. While those corners are to be determined, the Secretary could shift personnel, funding, and operational responsibility to mission-essential components of the department, including the Office of the Secretary itself. This effort not only would make the department more efficient, but also would support a legislative move to shrink or dismantle the department by showing that the agency can fulfill national security-critical functions without its current bloated bureaucracy.

Restructuring and Redistribution of Career Personnel. To strengthen political decision-making and ensure that taxpayer dollars are being used legally and efficiently, the Secretary should make major changes in the distribution of career personnel throughout the department. For example, personnel from parts of the department undergoing soft closure could be redistributed to what will be workload-intensive corners of the department, including national security-critical and transparency functions. All personnel with law enforcement capacity should be removed immediately from office billets and deployed to field billets to maximize law enforcement capacity.

Compliance for Grants and Other Federal Funding. The next Administration should take steps to restore lawfulness and integrity to the department’s massive regimen of federal grant programs, most of which are managed and distributed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The Secretary should direct FEMA to ensure that all FEMA-issued grant funding for states, localities, and private organizations is going to recipients who are lawful actors, can demonstrate that they are in compliance with federal law, and can show that their mission and actions support the broader homeland security mission. All applicants and potential recipients of such grant funding should be required to meet certain preconditions for eligibility (except for receipt of post-disaster or nonhumanitarian funding) or should simply be considered ineligible for funding. Such preconditions should include at least the following:

• =6Certification by applicants that they comply with all aspects of federal immigration laws, including the honoring of all immigration detainers.

• Certification by applicants that they are both registered with E-Verify and using E-Verify in a transparent and nonevasive manner. For states