GAO Reports on DHS Efforts to Improve Resilience of Ports & Infrastructure to Disruptions
The Department of Homeland Security has made progress in developing a strategy of “resilience,” or the ability of ports and other infrastructure to “resist, absorb, recover from, or adapt to adversity,” but still has a ways to go in implementing and streamlining its efforts, said the Government Accountability Office in a report issued Oct. 25. The report, entitled “Critical Infrastructure Protection: An Implementation Strategy Could Advance DHS’s Coordination of Resilience Efforts across Ports and Other Infrastructure,” follows a GAO investigation consisting of document reviews and interviews with DHS officials, including port visits, that was requested by three Congressmen.1
According to the report, U.S. ports, waterways, and vessels are part of an economic engine handling more than $700 billion in merchandise annually. A major disruption to this system would have a widespread impact on global shipping, international trade, and the global economy, GAO said. For example, a 2006 report by the Congressional Budget Office estimated that a one-week shutdown in container traffic at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach would result in a loss of GDP of $65 million to $150 million per day.
Complicating matters, port operations involve a complicated system operating across multiple sectors. Ports require many assets that are interdependent with other sectors, such as power and water, to continue normal operations. Similarly, many businesses and communities rely on the port for their normal operations. Interruptions in the supply chain often have secondary and tertiary impacts that may not be immediately obvious to businesses and communities, the report said. Understanding the interdependencies among various port area stakeholders and other critical partners outside the port area is necessary to ensure and enhance a port’s resilience, said GAO.
Since 2009, DHS has increased its focus on infrastructure resilience. DHS created two internal entities -- the Resilience Integration Team and the Office of Resilience Policy -- to develop a department-wide policy to promote a common understanding of resilience within the agency, and establish resilience objectives. The policy is currently in draft status, but officials hope to have an approved policy in place later this year.
However, DHS officials indicated they have no plans to develop an implementation strategy for this policy, GAO said. An implementation strategy that defines goals, objectives, and activities could help ensure that the policy is adopted consistently and in a timely manner, and that all components of DHS share common priorities and objectives, it said.
Meanwhile, the Coast Guard and the Office of Infrastructure Protection are both working to assess and enhance infrastructure resilience. But while the Coast Guard focuses on ports, the Office of Infrastructure Protection assesses resilience on a regional level. While the two DHS components have collaborated on some regional resilience assessments, there may be opportunities for further collaboration and use of existing tools to conduct portwide resilience assessment efforts. The Coast Guard’s assessments of port/maritime assets coupled with the Office of Infrastructure Protection’s assessments of other critical infrastructure with a port nexus could lead to a better understanding of the interdependencies critical to keeping a port operations, the report said.
1The report was requested by John Rockefeller (D-W.V.), chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation; John Mica (R-Fla.), chair of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure; and Frank LoBiondo (R-N.J.), chair of the House Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation.