Under Secretary Cohen's Testimony - The First 180 Days - Aligned and Open for Business

My first six months on the job have been focused on laying the foundation in organization, people, and processes to enable the Directorate to skillfully apply the resources you have wisely provided in ways that best serve the American people and better secure our homeland. I am pleased to report that we are "open for business," and your support of the President's FY 2008 Budget Request will allow us to build upon that momentum.

As I've said on many occasions, the S&T Directorate must excel in four key areas if we are to accomplish these goals: We must get the organization, the people, the books, and the program content right. These four "gets" are the cornerstones of the realignment effort and we've made significant progress in each of these areas. In addition to the four gets, the four Bs — bombs, borders, bugs and business — provide the thematic approach to help keep us focused on the priority areas for the S&T Directorate.

I have realigned the S&T Directorate to help it fulfill its potential of becoming the customer-focused, output-oriented, science and technology management organization that Congress intended it to be and the Nation deserves. I thank Congress for its support of the new organizational structure that, in turn, is supportive of a broad and balanced range of activities that are aimed at identifying, enabling and transitioning new capabilities to our customers to better protect the nation. We have organized our program management into six technical divisions that are led by veteran S&T Directorate staff members and linked to three research investment portfolio directors in a "matrix management" structure. The technical divisions are focused on the enduring homeland security disciplines of Explosives; Chemical and Biological; Command, Control & Interoperability; Borders and Maritime Security; Human Factors; and Infrastructure Protection and Geophysical Sciences. The portfolio directors — Director of Research, Director of Transition, and Director of Innovation/Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency (HSARPA) — provide cross-cutting coordination of their respective aspects of the investment strategy within the technical divisions.

Office of the Under Secretary for Science & Technology

I am pleased to report that today the S&T Directorate has a strong leadership team in place with all key positions filled. Since August, we have also welcomed 20 new highly qualified subject matter experts and professionals to the S&T Directorate, including three former DHS S&T employees who had previously left the Directorate and who have returned. Overall, we are 66 percent staffed and plan to have 100 percent of staff in place by the end of 2007.

I have made significant strides in "getting the books right" by holding the S&T Directorate to a high standard of fiscal responsibility. Toward this end, I have established an Office of Strategy, Policy & Budget Division led by the S&T Chief Financial Officer that has put in place the systems and protocols that will enable the S&T Directorate to be fully responsive and transparent in the budget development process and in the sound fiscal management of S&T appropriations. This new office is enhancing the efficiency of S&T operations by integrating related functions of policy, planning, programming, budgeting and execution. Centralizing financial oversight has enabled the S&T Directorate to implement corrective actions to address financial management deficiencies and accelerate the distribution of funds to DHS Laboratories, Department of Energy National Laboratories, private industry and academia. As a result, the S&T Directorate has committed 47 percent of its FY 2007 budget compared to 6 percent at the same time last year, significantly accelerating the distribution of funds to DHS Labs, DOE Labs, industry and academia, which will result in accelerated technology development and delivery to keep our Nation safer.

In other developments, I have added a director of Special Programs to work in select, mission-critical areas. And a new director of Test & Evaluation and Standards is building upon the S&T Directorate's previous work in homeland security standards and adding test and evaluation capabilities to advance this effort and draw greater industry participation in developing new technologies for homeland security applications throughout DHS. We have also established a Corporate Communications Office to inform and engage our customers and their customers in the S&T Directorate's broad investment portfolios.

I also know that we must look beyond our Department, indeed beyond our nation's borders, for solutions in combating domestic terrorism. Therefore, consistent with DHS enabling legislation, I have established Interagency and International Program Offices responsible for, respectively, coordinating with other Executive Branch agencies to reduce duplication and identify unmet needs, and coordinating our international outreach efforts to help us tap into science and technology communities across the globe for solutions to counter domestic terrorism. Embedded S&T Directorate liaisons in Europe, the Americas and Pacific/Asia are casting a wide global net to identify the most viable homeland security solutions and their providers.

Last December, we saw the "physical manifestation" of our restructuring plan spring to life with the relocation of 340 of our staff members within the Directorate. Staff are now physically co-located within their new organizational alignments. At the same time, I issued the first S&T Organization and Requirements Manual (STORM) that defines functions, duties and responsibilities for the administration and management of the Directorate. The STORM tells our customers who we are and how we function so they may better understand the capabilities we can bring to bear in support of their protective missions.

Throughout this process, it was very important to me personally that S&T staff be kept informed of our plans for the realignment and that they have a forum for asking questions and expressing their views and concerns. Since last August, I have held four "All Hands" meetings at regular intervals to brief all S&T staff, including teleconference links with staff in other locations such as the Transportation Security Laboratory in Atlantic City, Plum Island Animal Disease Center, and the Environmental Measurements Laboratory in New York City. These meetings also allow me to recognize the achievements of staff members, to answer questions and solicit input, and, most importantly, express my gratitude for their excellent work and for all the cooperation, support and patience they have exhibited during this transitional period.

During the first six months of my tenure as Under Secretary for Science and Technology, I have focused on building the organization, team and processes that are necessary for any science and technology management organization to succeed. While our effort to completely institutionalize these changes continue, we now have a foundation in place that allows us to focus on delivering products to our customers as we execute our FY 2007 appropriation. The S&T Directorate is striving to be effective, cost-efficient, responsive, agile and flexible, and with your support of the President's FY 2008 Budget Request we will build on our current momentum.