Homeland Security: Boom and Bust

Even though Congress doesn't devote a lot of resources in assessing the effectiveness and faithfulness of various bureaucratic departments, there are plenty of watchdog groups who are fully committed to reporting shirking in U.S. politics. The Center for Public Integrity is one such group and this year they have published an extensive report on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The report is extremely thorough as it demonstrates how officials have used funds in each state. My favorite is in California, where "a university campus police department purchased a $2,300 plasma TV." It is true that we cannot measure how many units of protection that the DHS has produced, but I am not sure the DHS can justify a lot of the ways that money has been used in the states. The problem is that the government has been streaming money non-stop to the DHS; after all, they are the ones responsible for domestic safety, and who are we to know better? It certainly looks as though the DHS operates independently from Congress, which continues to give it money without question.
Determining whether bureaucracy or Congress wields the power in the DHS is a worthwhile endeavor. One can easily see how the DHS' monopoly on the knowledge on how best to protect this nation elicits a very generous budget from Congress, but could it be that this budget actually stems from the Congressmen's constituents' desires for more security? It wouldn't be an exaggeration that Americans are more paranoid since 9/11. The report criticizes the fact that there is no oversight over the DHS, but maybe the department is just going in the direction that Congress wants. It could be that by pouring money into the DHS, Congress is reassuring its constituents that the US is getting the best protection it can afford. It seems like a two-way street; Congress wants the DHS to achieve more security, as per constituents wishes, while the DHS wants as much funding as it wants to do it, however it does it. If it is true that constituents have a lot of influence on Congressmen, then third-party organizations like the Center for Public Integrity are crucial. To stem this kind of reckless spending, as we have read, requires significant feedback from the vaguely informed voters. But given the rational ignorance of voters, it would be difficult to know what's actually happening in the government without the efforts of such organizations.