Grant Thornton-HSDBC Study: Next Administration Should Build on DHS ‘Unity of Effort’ Program

A new report by Grant Thornton and the Homeland Security & Defense Business Council says industry and government executives want the next administration to build on the Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson’s Unity of Effort initiative to help streamline management across the homeland security enterprise.

Grant Thornton’s public sector business and HSDBC polled 102 government and industry leaders through focus groups, online survey and in-person interviews in the fall of 2016 as part of the 20/20 Project on the Homeland Security Enterprise, the council said Thursday.

Survey respondents said that HSE goes beyond the Department of Homeland Security and that the next administration should build up the White House’s Homeland Security Council in order to coordinate national-level mission operations and policies across HSE.

The report also found that inter- and intra-agency operations play a role in every homeland security mission and that mission support efforts appear to impede the capacity to carry out missions within the enterprise.

“Our hope is that these findings will support a continued substantive dialogue between government officials and industry executives from the homeland security enterprise, and help inform the incoming administration on what is working well and what could be improved,” said Marc Pearl, president and CEO of HSDBC.