Press Releases

Washington, D.C. – Three legislative measures sponsored by U.S. Rep. Scott Perry passed the U.S. House last night as part of a package of bills (H.R. 3572) designed to make critical reforms to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. H.R. 3572 now heads to the U.S. Senate for consideration.

Making DHS More Efficient

Incorporated into H.R. 3572 was a bill to streamline the purchasing process at DHS and save taxpayer dollars sponsored by Rep. Perry and co-sponsored by the bi-partisan leadership of the House Homeland Security Committee. The DHS Acquisition Accountability and Efficiency Act (H.R. 2199) requires greater oversight of the Department of Homeland Security’s purchasing process while ensuring needed flexibility and providing clarity for American businesses. Learn more here: http://1.usa.gov/1jS5w5V.

Two amendments by Rep. Perry that were passed by the House also emphasized this reform theme. The first requires DHS’ chief financial officer to provide more stringent oversight of conference spending and make these findings open to the public. DHS spent more than $20 million on conferences from October 2013 through December 2014, despite homeland threats and budget restraints.

The second amendment ensures that all major DHS acquisition programs are subject to rigorous testing and evaluation before being deployed to the field. This year, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that DHS deployed several programs without operational testing. This amendment will make sure that these significant investments will actually deliver the capabilities that operators in the field need. A summary of these bills can be found here: http://1.usa.gov/1GaDabJ.

House passage of these amendments continue Rep. Perry’s commitment to making our homeland safer and ensuring that DHS is a better steward of hard-working taxpayer dollars.  An amendment sponsored by Rep. Perry last year to reinforce the protection and security of chemical facilities from terrorist attacks was signed into law.