The Quadrennial Homeland Security Review (QHSR) is the Department of Homeland Security's capstone strategy document, which is updated every four years as required by law. The report offers recommendations on long-term strategy and priorities for homeland security. Each QHSR cycle entails an extensive three-year-long review process before the report is finalized and submitted to Congress. The Department strives to make the QHSR as thorough and inclusive as possible by working with a wide range of stakeholders inside and outside government, who share responsibility for safeguarding the Homeland. The QHSR will provide the strategic foundation to ensure that the Department is ready to meet future challenges.
Released in 2023, the third Quadrennial Homeland Security Review (QHSR) assesses the threats and challenges the Department faces today and into the future and lays out the approaches DHS and the homeland security enterprise are adopting to carry out its missions. The QHSR reaffirms the five enduring homeland security missions -- and adds a new sixth mission: Combat Crimes of Exploitation and Protect Victims. Overall, this strategic guidance and updated mission framework will inform existing Departmental processes for translating priorities into resources, including the DHS Strategic Plan and the annual budget development process.
The second quadrennial review, released in 2014, reflected a more focused, collaborative Departmental strategy, planning, and analytic capability. The risk-informed priorities set forth in the 2014 Review drove operational planning, as well as analysis of resource and capability options and tradeoffs for the following four years. The 2014 review also recognized the responsibility the Department shares with hundreds of thousands of people across the federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial governments, the private sector, and other nongovernmental organizations, and provided a path forward for engaging in public-private partnerships. These are the people who regularly interact with the public, who are responsible for public safety and security, who own and operate our nation’s critical infrastructure and services, who perform research and develop technology, and who keep watch, prepare for, and respond to emerging threats and disasters.
In 2010, the Department of Homeland Security’s first quadrennial review answered the question, “What is homeland security?”, laying out the vision, five mission areas, and goals and objectives for homeland security.
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