Homeland Security Act (2002)

Legislation enacted in 2002 that established the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) within the executive branch of the U.S. government and defined its primary missions and responsibilities. Following the terrorist attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001, coordinating the defense of the U.S. homeland rapidly emerged as a paramount priority for the government. To achieve that end, the U.S. Congress passed the Homeland Security Act, which President George W. Bush signed into law on November 25, 2002. This act created a new executive department, the DHS, and established a number of measures aimed at better protecting the national security of the United States.

Until the passage of the Homeland Security Act, the U.S. security apparatus had been dispersed across a wide range of federal agencies and the military. In addition to creating an entirely new federal government organization with its own mandate, a cabinet-level secretary, and more than 180,000 employees, the law also placed a number of existing agencies beneath the larger umbrella of the DHS. These agencies include the U.S. Customs Service, Immigration and Naturalization Service, Coast Guard, Transportation Security Administration, Federal Emergency Management Agency, and Secret Service.

The DHS has five core missions: information analysis and infrastructure protection; chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and related countermeasures; border and transportation security; emergency preparedness and response; and coordination with other parts of the federal government, with state and local governments, and with the private sector. Former Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge was nominated by President Bush to be the first secretary of homeland security; after being confirmed by the U.S. Senate, he was sworn into office in January 2003.

The Homeland Security Act of 2002 was not passed without criticism. West Virginia Democratic senator Robert Byrd, one of the most vocal opponents of the legislation, denounced it as “an irresponsible exercise in political chicanery” and “a bureaucratic behemoth cooked up by political advisers to satisfy several inside Washington agendas.” Indeed, the Bush administration itself was initially lukewarm to the idea of establishing the superagency, and critics of the president publicly suggested that his change of heart suspiciously corresponded with the damaging testimony of FBI whistleblower Coleen Rowley about failures in FBI performance in the months leading up to the September 11 terrorist attacks.

The creation of the DHS represents the most comprehensive reorganization of the federal government since the Department of Defense was created in 1947. Although many credit the lack of a second major terrorist attack on the United States to its creation, others continue to vehemently oppose the new department on the grounds that its sweeping, Big Brother-like powers ultimately undermine the very democratic system it is charged with securing.