GAO criticizes Homeland Security assessment of risks

The Government Accountability Office faulted Homeland Security Department officials Thursday for failing to complete a comprehensive risk assessment for the nation's transportation systems and called for "enhanced federal leadership" to bolster the effort, according to a report.

"There is still the question of where we are going and what we are doing," said Cathleen Berrick, GAO's director for homeland security issues, at a hearing of the Senate Commerce Committee.

In a 27-page report, GAO noted that the Transportation Security Administration had not completed a comprehensive risk assessment of the nation's rail passenger network and that Homeland Security was still attempting to develop a framework for analyzing the vulnerabilities in the overall transportation system.

The failure to finish the projects has hobbled the ability of the government to establish clear priorities and "allocate resources accordingly," the GAO said.

The report urged TSA and Homeland Security to "take additional steps to help insure that risk management efforts under way clearly and effectively identify priority areas for security-related investments in rail and other transportation modes."

The GAO commented that the lesson of the July 2005 bombings in the London subway network was that "even when a variety of security precautions are put into place, passenger rail systems that move high volumes of passengers remain vulnerable to attack."

In his testimony before the committee, TSA Administrator Edmund (Kip) Hawley acknowledged that his agency's risk assessment of passenger rail networks was "ongoing," but said it had already identified a top priority -- high-density systems with underground tunnels.

Hawley also sought to assure panel members that his agency had not neglected security on the Amtrak system despite the apparent lack of passenger and baggage screening. He explained that there was actually more security on Amtrak "than meets the eye" because undercover teams of federal marshals and other security personnel have been deployed to patrol the system.

As additional security measures for U.S. rail passenger systems, the GAO suggested that TSA adopt practices used by foreign rail operators, such as the random screening of passengers and covert testing to help keep rail employees alert to security threats.

The GAO also faulted the TSA for the security directives issued by the agency to Amtrak and other U.S. rail operators in the wake of the March 2004 attack on the Madrid rail system. The GAO said the directives left U.S. operators confused as to how to implement them and whether TSA intended to enforce them.