United States Department of Homeland Security

The Department of Homeland Security is a deparment of the federal government of the United States concerned with protecting the American homeland and the safety of American citizens. In was created partially in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

The new department was established on November 25, 2002 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 is intended to consolidate U.S. executive branch organizations related to "homeland security" into a single cabinet agency by 2004. The new Department is headed by former governor Tom Ridge.

This was called the largest government reorganization in 50 years (since the United States Department of Defense was created). The new department assumes a number of government functions previously in other departments. It supersedes, but does not replace the Office of Homeland Security, which retains an advisory role.

The Department of Homeland Security is organized into four divisions, incorporating many existing federal functions (original parent agency in parentheses):

• Border and Transportation Security
  • United States Customs Service[?] (United States Department of the Treasury),
  • Immigration and Naturalization Service (United States Department of Justice),
  • Border Patrol[?] (United States Department of Justice),
  • Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service[?] (United States Department of Agriculture),
  • Transportation Security Administration (United States Department of Transportation),
  • Federal Protective Service[?] (General Services Administration[?]),
  • U.S. Coast Guard (United States Department of Transportation),

• Emergency Preparedness and Response
  • Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)

• Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Countermeasures
  • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (United States Department of Energy)
  • Plum Island Animal Disease Center[?] (United States Department of Agriculture).

• Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection.
  • National Infrastructure Simulation and Analysis Center[?] (United States Department of Energy).
  • Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office[?] (United States Department of Commerce)
  • National Infrastructure Protection Center[?] (Federal Bureau of Investigation).
  • Federal Computer Incident Response Center[?] (General Services Administration[?])
  • National Communications System (United States Department of Defense)

Controversy about adoption centered on whether the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency should be incorporated in part or in whole. 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 immediately, for incompetence or insubordination. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle wanted an appeals process that could take up to 18 months or as little as one month.

External Link

• American Civil Liberties Union (http://www.aclu.org/safeandfree/)
• Department of Homeland Security (http://www.dhs.gov/)