Central Agency

An office of government that holds power over an area of operations. Central agencies are common in countries with centralized systems of government. Although there is a tradition of decentralization in the United States, there are a number of central agencies at the federal level. A recent example of the establishment of a central agency is the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) created in law in the Homeland Security Act of 2002 and established in 2003. DHS was formed in direct response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks; it was believed by government officials that better information sharing and coordinated action between federal agencies would have been beneficial in helping to prevent the attacks. The DHS united 22 federal agencies and approximately 180,000 federal employees under a central command. Agencies in the DHS include the U.S. Secret Service, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the Immigration and Naturalization Service.