United States Department of Homeland Security
 
| |
| Established: | November 25, 2002 |
| Activated: | January 24, 2003 |
| United States Secretary of Homeland Security>Secretary: | Tom Ridge |
| Deputy Secretary: | James M. Loy |
| Budget: | $36.5 billion (2004) |
| Employees: | 183,000 (2004) |
| Table of contents |
|
2 Operating units 3 Related legislation 4 See also 5 External links |
The department was established on November 25, 2002 by the Homeland Security Act and officially began operation on January 24, 2003. After months of discussion about employee rights and benefits and "rider" portions of the bill, Congress passed it shortly after the midterm elections, and 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. The new Department is headed by former governor of Pennsylvania Tom Ridge.
It was the largest government reorganization in 50 years (since the United States Department of Defense was created). The department assumed a number of government functions previously in other departments. It superseded, but did not replace the Office of Homeland Security, which retained an advisory role.
President George W. Bush signs the Homeland Security Appropriations Act of 2004
Controversy about adoption centered on whether the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency 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. Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle wanted an appeals process that could take up to 18 months or as little as one month.
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." Since January 2003, it has been administered in coordination with the DHS.
The Department of Homeland Security is currently organized into four main divisions, incorporating many existing federal functions (original parent agencies in parentheses):
History
Operating units
Related legislation
See also
External links