Part Three on DHS/TSA Idiocy - DHS Cannot Issue ID Cards; Cites Lack of Funding

And now for the next installment of lunacy from the Department of Homeland ‘Security.’

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is almost three years behind schedule in issuing presidentially mandated federal identity cards.  As of September 2009, the DHS had issued a meager 15,600 cards out of the 275,000 necessary, including only five issued to members of the Transportation Security Administration.  The DHS Inspector General “blamed the delays on weak program management, insufficient funding and resources, and a change in implementation strategy midway through the program” (Lipowicz, 2010).

Sample Common Access Card (Military Example but DHS ones would be similar)

 Does any of this really surprise anyone?  This department is the most incompetent creation yet by the bloated, massive federal government.  This agency has had carte blanche since its inception in terms of funding, initiative, and independence and it blames its shortcomings on the standard governmental excuse of not enough money.  I would like to see these people run a business someday.  This kind of incompetence is difficult to exceed even for government bureaucracies.  In merely two years (2002 to 2004), the Department of Defense issued 5.4 million of these types of ID cards (later renamed the Common Access Card to meet the new federally mandated standards) (Department of Defense).  If the notoriously slow maneuvering Department of Defense with its approximately 3 million uniformed and non-uniformed employees can implement an entirely new identification card process, why cannot this much smaller organization?

This is simply one more example of the ridiculousness that goes on in that Department.  I believe instead of figuring out how to take over more and more of American private enterprise, our elected representatives should fix the shambles that is one of the few Constitutionally mandated functions of government:  our national security.

Bibliography

Department of Defense. (n.d.). DOD Common Access Card - Policies. Retrieved February 21, 2010, from CAC: http://www.cac.mil/Policies.html

Lipowicz, A. (2010, February 17). DHS falls behind in issuing HSPD-12 ID cards, IG reports. Retrieved February 21, 2010, from Federal Computer Week: http://fcw.com/articles/2010/02/17/dhs-hspd12-piv-cards-inspector-general-report.aspx