The Department of Homeland Security began in March 2003, in a cumbersome response to the tragedies of September 2001, with the merger of 22 agencies and 170,000 workers. In the four years since and with many thousand new employees, it has remained cumbersome even as no agency has been more studied nor had more proposals for improvement. A 328-page assessment by the Government Accountability Office this week provides an update on this agency’s subsequent progress.

The conclusions were as follows: Limited, modest and moderate.

The GAO used those three performance descriptions in 13 of 14 areas of responsibility for DHS, a failure proportionate to the size of the agency. In only one area, maritime security, DHS received the highest rating of “substantial,” because it had developed steps such as national plans for security, response and recovery. In other areas, however, such as emergency preparedness, countermeasures for terrorist threats, and information technology management, the agency achieved less than a quarter of its performance expectations. DHS officials disagree with the findings in 42 of 171 measures.

In the short time DHS has existed and spent $421 billion, the department has been reviewed 400 times – perhaps that’s where too many of its resources have gone – with 700 recommendations for reform from congressional overseers, the department’s inspector general, private groups and from within the administration. Many of the congressional reforms have come at the request of Sen. Susan Collins, who has been chairman or ranking member of the Senate committee with oversight since the agency’s beginning. On Thursday, she told The Washington Post, “With so much at stake and so many areas where progress is still required, America cannot settle for a mixed report card.”

DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff recently told the House Homeland Security Committee that the United States was “unequivocally” safer from terrorist attacks compared with September 2001, although security could be improved in areas including private airplanes and small boats. The GAO study goes considerably further than Mr. Chertoff’s comments. It charges that the agency has failed to make sufficient progress in key areas such as ensuring that disaster response teams have the capacity to react in an emergency and that the agency can properly assess emerging threats from chemical, biological or nuclear attack.

From the agency’s beginning, government and security officials recognized that DHS would need years to become fully operational. Almost no one expects that it would have completed its many challenges by this point. The GAO review, however, shows that DHS is failing in many important ways to hit the benchmarks Congress has set for it, and as it continues to fail the risks to the nation increase.

Congress should begin breaking down this review into smaller parts and set deadlines for action. The goals have been clearly set through numerous studies. Now the public should expect results.