United States Department of Homeland Security
The United States Department of Homeland Security is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior, home, or public security ministries in other countries. Its missions involve anti-terrorism, civil defense, immigration and customs, border control, cybersecurity, transportation security, maritime security and sea rescue, and the mitigation of weapons of mass destruction.
It began operations on March 1, 2003, after being formed as a result of the Homeland Security Act of 2002, enacted in response to the September 11 attacks. With more than 240,000 employees, DHS is the third-largest Cabinet department, after the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs. Homeland security policy is coordinated at the White House by the Homeland Security Council. Other agencies with significant homeland security responsibilities include the departments of Health and Human Services, Justice, and Energy.
History
Creation
In response to the September 11 attacks, President George W. Bush announced the establishment of the Office of Homeland Security to coordinate "homeland security" efforts. The office was headed by former Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge, who assumed the title of Assistant to the President for Homeland Security. The official announcement states:Ridge began his duties as OHS director on October 8, 2001. On November 25, 2002, the Homeland Security Act established the Department of Homeland Security to consolidate U.S. executive branch organizations related to "homeland security" into a single Cabinet agency. In January 2003, the office was superseded, but not replaced by the Department of Homeland Security and the White House Homeland Security Council, both of which were created by the Homeland Security Act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. The Gilmore Commission, supported by much of Congress and John Bolton, helped to solidify further the need for the department. The DHS incorporated the following 22 agencies.
List of incorporated agencies
| Original agency | Original department | New agency or office after transfer |
| U.S. Customs Service | Treasury | U.S. Customs and Border Protection U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement |
| Immigration and Naturalization Service | Justice | U.S. Customs and Border Protection U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services |
| Federal Protective Service | General Services Administration | Management Directorate |
| Transportation Security Administration | Transportation | Transportation Security Administration |
| Federal Law Enforcement Training Center | Treasury | Federal Law Enforcement Training Center |
| Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service | Agriculture | U.S. Customs and Border Protection |
| Federal Emergency Management Agency | none | Federal Emergency Management Agency |
| Strategic National Stockpile | Health and Human Services | Originally assigned to FEMA, but returned to HHS in July 2004 |
| National Disaster Medical System | Health and Human Services | Originally assigned to FEMA, but returned to HHS in August 2006 |
| Nuclear Incident Response Team | Energy | Responsibilities distributed within FEMA |
| Domestic Emergency Support Team | Justice | Responsibilities distributed within FEMA |
| Center for Domestic Preparedness | Justice | Responsibilities distributed within FEMA |
| CBRN Countermeasures Programs | Energy | Science & Technology Directorate |
| Environmental Measurements Laboratory | Energy | Science & Technology Directorate |
| National Biological Warfare Defense Analysis Center | Defense | Science & Technology Directorate |
| Plum Island Animal Disease Center | Agriculture | Science & Technology Directorate |
| Federal Computer Incident Response Center | General Services Administration | US-CERT, Office of Cybersecurity and Communications National Programs and Preparedness Directorate |
| National Communications System | Defense | Office of Cybersecurity and Communications National Programs and Predaredness Directorate |
| National Infrastructure Protection Center | Justice | Office of Operations Coordination Office of Infrastructure Protection |
| Energy Security and Assurance Program | Energy | Office of Infrastructure Protection |
| U.S. Coast Guard | Transportation | U.S. Coast Guard |
| U.S. Secret Service | Treasury | U.S. Secret Service |
According to political scientist Peter Andreas, the creation of DHS constituted the most significant government reorganization since the Cold War and the most substantial reorganization of federal agencies since the National Security Act of 1947. Creation of DHS constitutes the most diverse merger ever of federal functions and responsibilities, incorporating 22 government agencies into a single organization. The founding of the DHS marked a change in American thought towards threats.
Introducing the term "homeland" centers attention on a population that needs to be protected not only against emergencies such as natural disasters but also against diffuse threats from individuals who are non-native to the United States.
Prior to the signing of the bill, controversy about its adoption was focused on whether the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency should be incorporated in part or in whole. The bill was also controversial for the presence of unrelated "riders", as well as for eliminating certain union-friendly civil service and labor protections for department employees. Without these protections, employees could be expeditiously reassigned or dismissed on grounds of security, incompetence or insubordination, and DHS would not be required to notify their union representatives. The plan stripped 180,000 government employees of their union rights. In 2002, Bush officials argued that the September 11 attacks made the proposed elimination of employee protections imperative.
In an August 5, 2002, speech, President Bush said: "We are fighting... to secure freedom in the homeland." Prior to the creation of DHS, U.S. Presidents had referred to the U.S. as "the nation" or "the republic" and to its internal policies as "domestic". Also unprecedented was the use, from 2002, of the phrase "the homeland" by White House spokespeople.
File:US-border-patrol-20050502.jpg|thumb|left|A U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer addresses Vice President Dick Cheney ; Saxby Chambliss, a U.S. Senator from Georgia; and Michael Chertoff, the second head of the DHS; in 2005
Congress ultimately passed the Homeland Security Act of 2002, and President Bush signed the bill into law on November 25, 2002. It was the largest U.S. government reorganization in the 50 years since the United States Department of Defense was created.
Tom Ridge was named secretary on January 24, 2003, and began naming his chief deputies. DHS officially began operations on January 24, 2003, but most of the department's component agencies were not transferred into the new department until March 1.
After establishing the basic structure of DHS and working to integrate its components, Ridge announced his resignation on November 30, 2004, following the re-election of President Bush. Bush initially nominated former New York City Police Department 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.
Changes under Secretary Chertoff
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 and was sworn in the same day.In February 2005, DHS and the Office of Personnel Management issued rules relating to employee pay and discipline for a new personnel system named MaxHR. The Washington Post said that the rules would allow DHS "to override any provision in a union contract by issuing a department-wide directive" and would make it "difficult, if not impossible, for unions to negotiate over arrangements for staffing, deployments, technology and other workplace matters". In August 2005, U.S. District judge Rosemary M. Collyer blocked the plan on the grounds that it did not ensure collective-bargaining rights for DHS employees. A federal appeals court ruled against DHS in 2006; pending a final resolution to the litigation, Congress's fiscal year 2008 appropriations bill for DHS provided no funding for the proposed new personnel system.
DHS announced in early 2007 that it was retooling its pay and performance system and retiring the name "MaxHR". In a February 2008 court filing, DHS said that it would no longer pursue the new rules, and that it would abide by the existing civil service labor-management procedures. A federal court issued an order closing the case. Chertoff's successor, Secretary Janet Napolitano deployed full body scanners to assist the United States Secret Service in 2012.
First Trump administration
A 2017 memo by Secretary of Homeland Security John F. Kelly directed DHS to disregard "age as a basis for determining when to collect biometrics."On November 16, 2018, President Donald Trump signed the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Act of 2018 into law, which elevated the mission of the former DHS National Protection and Programs Directorate and established the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. In fiscal year 2018, DHS was allocated a net discretionary budget of $47.716 billion.