Dhs Contract Reporting Act of 2021

Floor Speech

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Mrs. HARSHBARGER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 4363, the DHS Contract Reporting Act of 2021.

Improving transparency and accountability is an essential way for the America people to gain and have confidence in their government and the Department of Homeland Security.

Currently, there is no clear line of sight into DHS' purchasing decisions. Even though DHS is required to report some contract awards to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, it is not required to report them to other committees with oversight responsibilities such as ours, the House Committee on Homeland Security.

And most importantly, if the American people want to know where their tax dollars are going, that information is almost impossible to find.

Today, if someone wanted to find a DHS contract award, they would have to know how to use and navigate the cumbersome Federal data systems, and even then they may not be successful if they don't already know some key details about the contract.

Furthermore, DHS acquisition management is still on the Government Accountability Office's high-risk list. GAO reports that although DHS has taken steps to strengthen its acquisition requirements development process, DHS continues to face challenges in effectively executing its acquisition portfolio, with many programs not meeting the cost and schedule goals they establish.

I want to change this. The bill I am putting forward today will increase the transparency into these contracts. The DHS Contract Reporting Act of 2021 requires DHS to have a public facing website where it will report all contract awards over $4 million.

To illustrate the current opaqueness of our oversight, I want to ask: Does anybody here know whether all the DHS contracts that should have been awarded competitively actually were? I don't know the answer. But I do know that competition and contract awards helps to lower the cost of services and technologies the Department buys, and to get the best return on investment for the American taxpayer.

To get at this type of information and to have more insight into DHS' awards more generally, this bill also requires DHS to include key aspects of each contract award it reports, such as the total amount it plans to spend; what the contract is for; what type of agreement it is; and whether the government competed the contract award.

According to the government's top 100 contractors report for 2020, DHS alone awarded over $12 billion to its top 100 contractors. And this is an increase in spending of $1 billion from just the previous year.

This includes everything from drones and IT systems to medical services at the border. With these significant levels of increased spending, it is crucial that Congress have better oversight of DHS contracts.

If this requirement would have been in place last year, the American people and Congress would have had that insight into nearly 1,000 contracts DHS awarded in 2020. We need to put this requirement in place now so that Congress can ensure better stewardship of taxpayer dollars next year.

With increased Federal spending across the board, it is more important than ever that this committee does its job to ensure DHS is being a good steward of taxpayer dollars. More accountability will make the Department a better business partner and a better provider of services to the public, and that is why I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

I would like to thank Ranking Member Katko and Representatives Luria and Slotkin for reaching across the aisle and cosponsoring this bill with me.

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