United States Department of Homeland Security

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Dept. of Homeland Security

Image:US-DeptOfHomelandSecurity-Seal.png

Established:November 25, 2002
Activated:January 24, 2003
Secretary:Michael Chertoff
Deputy Secretary:Michael P. Jackson
Budget:$36.5 billion (2004)
Employees:183,000 (2004)

The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is a Cabinet department of the Federal Government of the United States with the responsibility of protecting the territory of the United States from terrorist attack and responding to natural disasters. The department was created from 22 existing federal agencies in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

DHS is the third largest cabinet department in the US federal government after the Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs. It has approximately 180,000 employees. Homeland Security is coordinated at the White House by the Homeland Security Council, with Frances Townsend as the Homeland Security Advisor. Other agencies with significant homeland security responsibilities include the Department of Health and Human Services and the Energy Department.

Contents

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Initial Homeland Security Efforts after 9/11

On September 20, 2001, in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks, President George W. Bush announced the establishment of an Office of Homeland Security (OHS) to coordinate "homeland security" efforts, to be headed by Governor Tom Ridge with the title of Assistant to the President for Homeland Security. The official announcement stated:

The mission of the Office will be to develop and coordinate the implementation of a comprehensive national strategy to secure the United States from terrorist threats or attacks. The Office will coordinate the executive branch's efforts to detect, prepare for, prevent, protect against, respond to, and recover from terrorist attacks within the United States.

Former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge took up his duties as OHS director on October 8, 2001.

On March 12, 2002, the Homeland Security Advisory System, a color-coded terrorism risk advisory scale, was created as a Presidential Directive to provide a "comprehensive and effective means to disseminate information regarding the risk of terrorist acts to Federal, State, and local authorities and to the American people."  Many procedures at government facilities are keyed off of the alert level; for example a facility may search all entering vehicles when the alert is above a certain level. Since January 2003, it has been administered in coordination with the DHS; it has also been the target of frequent jokes and ridicule on the part of the administration's detractors about its perceived ineffectiveness. Color-coded systems are usually reserved for children and the elderly, who sometimes have difficulty keeping similar concepts apart mentally. Tom Ridge admitted, after resigning, that the color coded threat levels were adjusted up and down by the White House, not DHS, during the 2004 election season.

In January 2003, the office was merged into the Department of Homeland Security and the White House Homeland Security Council - both of which were created by the Homeland Security Act of 2002. The Homeland Security Council, similar in nature to the National Security Council, retains a policy coordination and advisory role and is led by the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security.

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Creation of the Department of Homeland Security

The department was established on November 25, 2002, by the Homeland Security Act of 2002. After months of discussion about employee rights and benefits and "rider" portions of the bill, it was signed into law by U.S. President George W. Bush. It was intended to consolidate U.S. executive branch organizations related to "homeland security" into a single cabinet agency. Ridge was named secretary on January 24, 2003 and began naming his chief deputies. DHS officially began operations on March 1, 2003, when most of the department's component agencies were transferred into the new Department.

It was the largest government reorganization in 50 years (since the United States Department of Defense was created). The aforementioned OHS, a small office within the Executive Office of the President, retained an advisory role.

After establishing the basic structure of DHS and working to integrate its components and get the department functioning, Ridge announced his resignation on November 30, 2004, following the re-election of President Bush. Bush initially nominated former NYPD commissioner Bernard Kerik as his successor, but on December 10, Kerik withdrew his nomination citing personal reasons and saying it "would not be in the best interests" of the country for him to pursue the post. On January 11, 2005, President Bush nominated federal judge Michael Chertoff to succeed Ridge. Chertoff was confirmed on February 15, 2005, by a vote of 98–0 in the U.S. Senate. He was sworn in the same day.

Image:DHS appropriations signing.jpg Controversy about adoption centered on whether the FBI and the CIA should be incorporated in part or in whole (both were not). The bill itself was also controversial for the presence of unrelated riders, as well as eliminating some standard civil service and labor protections from employees of the department. President Bush wanted the right to fire an employee within Homeland Security immediately for security reasons, for incompetence, or insubordination. Then-Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle wanted an appeals process that could take up to 18 months or as little as one month.

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Organization

Directorates

  • Under Secretary for Preparedness
    • Chief Medical Officer
    • Assistant Secretary for Cyber & Telecommunications
    • Assistant Secretary for Grants & Training
    • Assistant Secretary for Infrastructure Protection
    • Administrator of the U.S. Fire Administration
    • Director of the Office of National Capital Region Coordination
  • Under Secretary for Science & Technology
    • Director of the Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency
    • Director of Plans, Programs & Requirements
    • Director of the Office of Research Development
    • Director of the Office of Systems Engineering & Development
  • Under Secretary for Management
  • Under Secretary for Federal Emergency Management/Federal Emergency Management Agency
    • Deputy Director of FEMA
    • General Counsel
    • Director of Operations
      • Deputy Director of Operations
    • Director of Response
    • Director of Recovery
    • Director of the Mitigation Division/Federal Insurance Administrator
    • Director, Office of Equal Rights
    • Chief Information Officer
    • Director of Strategic Planning & Evaluation
    • Deputy Director for Gulf Coast Recovery
    • Regional Directors
  • Assistant Secretary for Policy
    • Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy
    • Assistant Secretary for International Affairs
    • Assistant Secretary for Private Sector Coordination
    • Assistant Secretary for Strategic Plans
    • Director of Immigration Statistics
    • Special Advisor, Asylum & Refugee Affairs
  • Assistant Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis/Chief Intelligence Officer
  • Director of Operations Coordination
  • Director of the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office

Agencies

As part of the reorganization within the department, on March 1, 2004 the National Incident Management System (NIMS) was created. The idea behind was to provide a consistent nationwide approach for Federal, State. local and tribal governments. Under Homeland Security Presidential Directive (HSPD)-5 all Federal departments were required to adopt the NIMS and to use it in their individual domestic incident management and emergency prevention, preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation program and activities. A few months later in December 2004 the National Response Plan(NRP) was created, in an attempt to align Federal coordination structures, capabilities, and resources into a unified, all-discipline, and all-hazards approach to domestic incident management. The NRP was built on the template of the NIMS.

  • Note: The Director of FEMA has been upgraded to the Under Secretary for Federal Emergency Management. Acting FEMA Director and U.S. Fire Administrator R. David Paulison has been nominated to fill the position. DHS & FEMA Press Release of 04/06/2006
  • Note: The DHS Organizational Charts do not reflect the new position of Under Secretary for Federal Emergency Management since it was recently announced by the Department.
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Related legislation and legislative oversight

Continuing congressional oversight of the budget and operations of the department is by the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security in the House of Representatives and by the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs in the Senate.

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Grants

DHS provides grants through a variety of programs to states, localities, first responders, and universities.

CREATE - Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events - the first university center of excellence funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, is an interdisciplinary national research center based at the University of Southern California. The Center comprises a team of experts from across the country, including partnerships with New York University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

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Ready.gov

Image:Ready gov.gif Soon after the formation of Department of Homeland Security, the Martin Agency of Richmond, Virginia provided pro bono work to create "Ready.gov", a readiness website. The site and materials were conceived as early as March 2002 but were launched in February of 2003, just before the launch of the Iraq War [1] [2] [3]. One of the first announcements that garnered widespread public attention to this campaign was one by Tom Ridge in which he stated that in the case of a chemical attack, citizens should use duct tape and plastic sheeting to build a homemade bunker, or "sheltering in place" [4] [5] to protect themselves. As a result, the sales of duct tape skyrocketed and DHS received criticism that they were being too alarmist. [6] [7]

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References

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See also

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External links


Template:Cabinetde:Heimatschutzministerium (Vereinigte Staaten) et:Ameerika Ühendriikide Sisejulgeolekuministeerium fr:Département de la Sécurité intérieure ja:アメリカ国土安全保障省 nl:Department of Homeland Security no:Sikkerhetsdepartementet (USA) pl:Department of Homeland Security sv:Departementet för inrikes säkerhet (USA)

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