Homeland Security Department

Secretary of Homeland Security

Why It Matters

Congress created the Department of Homeland Security in 2002, during the aftermath of al-Qaeda's September 11th, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. The new department brought together 22 agencies from across the executive branch in order to improve the country's efforts to guard against terrorism. The creation of DHS required the biggest government reorganization since President Harry Truman oversaw the consolidation of the armed forces into the Department of Defense, and DHS' management is still working to integrate the disparate parts that make up DHS into a working whole.

With 188,000 employees, DHS is one of the largest departments in the executive branch. It coordinates intelligence with state and local law-enforcement agencies, patrols the border, responds to epidemics, and leads disaster-recovery efforts. The department also inherited a hodgepodge of missions from its legacy agencies: the Secret Service still prosecutes financial-services fraud, for instance, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) helps investigate international drug-smuggling rings. Other components include the Transportation Security Agency (TSA), Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), and the Coast Guard.

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Background

At a Glance

# of Employees: 188,000
2010 Budget: $55 billion
Address: U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Washington, D.C. 20528
Web site

History

Although the September 11 attacks precipitated the formation of DHS, the idea of consolidating the government's homeland defense was being tossed around Washington before 2001. Beginning at the end of 1999, a series of commissions warned that the government needed to focus its efforts against terrorism. In 2001, just months before 9/11, the U.S. Commission on National Security/21st Century suggested the formation of a new "National Homeland Security Agency," which the commission said should include agencies that ended up in DHS, such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Border Patrol.

In October 2001, President Bush created the White House Office of Homeland Security as part of the government's response to the attacks and drafted Pennsylvnia Governor Tom Ridge to head it. Ridge's charge was to create a plan to prevent and respond to future terrorist attacks. That same month, Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Arlen Specter (D-PA) introduced a bill to establish a Department of Homeland Security. (At the time, Lieberman was a Democrat and Specter, a Republican.) President Bush and his advisors initially objected to the idea of an independent homeland security department. Tom Ridge told the editors of National Journal that he'd probably recommend the president veto Lieberman and Specter's bill, according to Congress Daily. By 2002, however, the political momentum behind the new department overtook the administration, and in November, the president signed the Homeland Security Act of 2002, creating the new department.

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The agencies that went into the makeup of DHS included agricultural programs like the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, law-enforcement efforts like the Federal Bureau of Investigation's National Infrastructure Protection Center, disaster preparedness teams, border-security outfits, and other offices from the Treasury, Energy, Defense and Transportation departments. Even the General Services Administration transferred some responsibilities to DHS: the government's management department had been working on a Federal Computer Incident Response Center, which fell under DHS' cybersecurity mandate.

For some of these components, their new home seemed an awkward fit. FEMA, for instance, dealt more often with the destruction of natural disasters than with terrorist attacks. And although the Coast Guard's responsibilities shifted towards terrorism-prevention after 9/11, the maritime agency still took on a slew of responsibilities, from ensuring the safety of swimmers and boaters to preventing and mitigating environmental impacts in the country's waterways like the 2010 BP oil spill, that had little to do with homeland security.

Within a few years, the DHS leadership had to rethink the department's organization. In 2003, the administration's plan filed components like FEMA under new directorates within DHS--the Directorate of Emergency Preparedness and Response, in this instance. In 2005, Michael Chertoff, the department's second secretary, instituted a review of DHS operations, abolished three of the original five directorates, and established agencies like FEMA and ICE as independent components of the department. Officials in Congress and within the department still question whether some components, like FEMA, belong in DHS at all and have advocated for their independence.

Physically, the department still reflects its Frankenstein-like birth, with 70 office buildings scattered throughout the D.C. area. At the end of 2009, the department broke ground on the site of its new headquarters at St. Elizabeths Campus, sited on a hill in southeast Washington. In addition to its D.C. personnel, DHS employees work across the country, particularly in land and airport facilities. About a quarter of DHS employees (more than 51,000) work for the TSA, the majority in positions as screeners, and more than 58,000 DHS employees clock in at Customs and Border Protection.

Offices

Office of the Secretary
- Chief Financial Officer
- Chief of Staff
- Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman
- Directorate for National Protection and Programs
- Directorate for Science and Technology
- Directorate of Management
- Domestic Nuclear Detection Office
- Executive Secretariat
- Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
- Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC)
- Military Advisor's Office
- Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
- Office of Counternarcotics Enforcement
- Office of Health Affairs
- Office of Intelligence and Analysis
- Office of Intergovernmental Affairs
- Office of Legislative Affairs
- Office of Operations Coordination and Planning
- Office of Policy
- Office of Public Affairs
- Office of the CIO
- Office of the General Counsel
- Office of the Inspector General
- Privacy Office
- Transportation Security Administration
- U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
- U.S. Coast Guard
- U.S. Customs and Border Protection
- U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
- U.S. Secret Service