Media Room

NVTC Titans Breakfast: DHS Secretary Chertoff Announces Issuance of Management Directive to Elevate and Enhance the Authority of Department's CIO

HERNDON, VA - March 15, 2007 - At an exclusive appearance this morning before an overflowing audience of 640 technology business leaders at the Northern Virginia Technology Council's (NVTC) Titans Breakfast co-hosted by the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), The Honorable Michael Chertoff, Secretary, U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that he will issue today a Management Directive to enhance and elevate the status of the Department's Chief Information Officer (CIO), Scott Charbo, to ensure the prudent investment of the $3 billion-or 10 percent of the total DHS budget-allotted for DHS information technology (IT) initiatives.

According to Secretary Chertoff, the CIO's role at DHS will be enhanced to include the following three new responsibilities:

  1. Each DHS component will be required to submit its individual IT budget to the CIO for his review and approval. The CIO will then submit the budget to Secretary Chertoff for final approval.
  2. Any IT acquisition larger than $2.5 million first must be approved by the department's Enterprise Architecture Board to ensure the proposed acquisition is aligned with DHS's enterprise architecture. The proposal then must be submitted to the CIO for final approval.
  3. The Department CIO will approve the hiring of all DHS component CIOs. The Department CIO also will set and approve each CIO's performance plans, ratings and annual award compensation.
Secretary Chertoff said that the implementation of the CIO's new authority will "more tightly strengthen the Department's investment review process, and budget acquisition and procurement business functions."

NVTC and ITAA will release a joint statement on the elevation of the DHS CIO later this afternoon.

During his NVTC Titans speech, the Secretary also described technology's role in accomplishing the top five goals under DHS's "umbrella" mission: protecting the United States against "dangerous people;" protecting the nation against dangerous cargo; protecting and hardening the nation's critical infrastructure; strengthening the U.S. emergency preparedness response system; and ensuring a fully integrated, unified and effectively managed department. He said "technology and ingenuity" give the United States its advantage in fighting the war against terrorism, both domestically and abroad.

In his remarks, Secretary Chertoff emphasized that a "partnership-oriented" approach with the private sector is essential. "More than ever as we enter the 21st century, we have to take a networked or partnership-oriented approach to what we do in securing the homeland and, therefore, continuing to have an open pipeline between the private sector and government becomes very important in our effort to manage risk..."

The Secretary concluded his remarks by commenting that: "We cannot provide a solution to every problem or challenge we face through technology, but I will say that technology is at least part of solution of almost every problem. I appreciate the work that this Council does to help expand the universe of technological possibility for our country and for the Department of Homeland Security, and I look forward to continuing to work with you in the future."

The speaker at the next NVTC Titans Breakfast will be Patrick Esser, president of Cox Communications Inc., on April 11 at the Hilton McLean. To learn more about this upcoming Titans Breakfast or other NVTC events, visit www.nvtc.org.