Since its creation five years ago, Americans have been inundated with stories of waste, fraud and abuse at the Department of Homeland Security ("DHS"). Mismanagement, grossly excessive spending, criminal conduct and shady no-bid contracts within DHS have become regular features on the evening news and the front page of newspapers. As a result, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington ("CREW") has prepared a report documenting some of the most serious problems facing the country's newest cabinet-level department.

Given the enormous size of DHS and the nearly innumerable issues facing the agency, CREW could not catalogue all of the problems. Instead, CREW has highlighted some of the agency's most serious failings to see that those responsible will be held accountable and to spark a public debate about how DHS can and must be improved in the next administration.

Whether it is the chronic staffing vacancies, the worst employee morale in the federal government, the inoperability of information technology, our exposure to cyber-terrorism or FEMA's fake press conferences, DHS's failures are reported on a daily basis. In addition to the spectacular and well documented failures of the Federal Emergency Management Agency during and following Hurricane Katrina, there have been seemingly unending smaller outrages: that DHS purchased iPods for "data storage," dog booties for hurricane recovery and designer rain jackets for munitions training, only to learn the iPods were lost, the booties unused and the firing range closed during rain.

There are more frightening facts as well. We take our shoes off at the airport, but baggage screeners at Los Angeles International Airport missed 75% of the fake bombs smuggled through by government auditors and we stock up on duct tape, plastic sheeting, water and batteries, but DHS has no integrated plan for catastrophic disasters.

Then there is the utter waste of hard-earned taxpayer dollars. Billions have been spent on projects to secure our borders and to inspect port cargo, but the projects have been delayed and the contractors have overcharged, all under the less than watchful of eye of DHS political appointees.

DHS has come to epitomize the unworkable, incompetent government bureaucracy. The stories about the agency would be comical if only our national security were not at stake.

Ensuring homeland security is not an easy task. Undoubtedly, there are talented, caring and dedicated DHS employees who work every day to keep our nation safe. Nevertheless, the agency must be held accountable for its failures and pushed to do better.

Methodology

Over the past year, CREW has collected and scrutinized press accounts, government reports, lobbying disclosures, online databases and court documents regarding DHS, its components and its employees. After reviewing the voluminous record, we created five categories: the most troubled component of DHS, the most outrageous contract entered into by DHS, program failures, the agency with the most significant crime problem, and the biggest beneficiary of the revolving door. In addition, in each category we have provided a dishonorable mention -- not the worst offender, but still worth public notice.