United States Department of Homeland Security
A new Department of Homeland Security for the federal government of the United States was established on November 25, 2002. 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.
This was called the largest government reorganization in 50 years (since the U.S. 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 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
- Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Countermeasures
- 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.
- Constitutional Challenges and Protest