Govt. Waste: Obama Calls Out Dept. of Homeland Security’s Millions for Logos

I’m reading President Barack Obama’s weekly address to be released tomorrow and he actually puts some meat on the bone of what is meant by government waste.

In this excerpt he lauds Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano for ending millions in contracts for the development of “seals and logos.”

And this Monday, at my first, full Cabinet meeting, I will ask all of my department and agency heads for specific proposals for cutting their budgets.  Already, members of my Cabinet have begun to trim back unnecessary expenditures.  Secretary Napolitano, for example, is ending consulting contracts to create new seals and logos that have cost the Department of Homeland Security $3 million since 2003.

You’ve got to be kidding me.  Isn’t most of the Homeland Security department made up of programs and agencies that were pre-existing?  Didn’t they already have logos?  I can just hear the marketing consultants when the behemoth DHS was created: We’ve got to build the brand!  Let me tell you, from experience, it shouldn’t have taken $3 million over the last six years to build a brand at DHS.

I got to wondering if the media had covered this boondoggle and hats off to the Washington Times - something you won’t hear from me very often.  Back on April 1, the Times reported on a memo sent by Napolitano to the management at DHS regarding her cost-cutting measures.  The contracts for the logo creators was apparently axed at that time.  According to the Times, Napolitano wrote her colleagues:

“Finally,” the secretary writes to the myriad agencies that now fall beneath the DHS umbrella, “in the interest of cost containment and unifying the department, I enacted a moratorium on all external contracts for the design and production of new seals and logos. Let me be clear – many DHS components have long histories that are linked to their seals. We are proud of this heritage and thankful for their service. But we’re also stewards of taxpayer dollars and we’re not spending any more money to develop new logos.”