The secretary of homeland safety is the latest everlasting member of the president’s Cupboard, overseeing the sprawling companies and missions of the U.S. Division of Homeland Safety and an annual finances exceeding US$62.2 billion.
Total, the division – and the secretary who leads it – is charged with defending the nation from all hazards. The division should reply to pure disasters, display hundreds of thousands of aviation passengers a day, defend the president and different senior nationwide leaders, combat home and worldwide hackers, defend dams, energy vegetation and different crucial programs throughout the nation, guarantee border safety and implement immigration legal guidelines.
It’s a large forms with many crucial nationwide safety capabilities. For instance, devastating wildfires burning in and round Los Angeles in current weeks have dropped at the forefront the division’s function in coordinating catastrophe response and aid throughout federal, state and native governments, in addition to with the non-public sector. On the identical time, the Secret Service is main the trouble to make sure the safety of the presidential inauguration, and cyberattacks proceed to focus on U.S. infrastructure and authorities companies.
The division’s historical past is comparatively quick. Instantly following the fear assaults of Sept. 11, 2001, then-President George W. Bush and different leaders realized {that a} potential contributing cause for the 9/11 tragedy was lack of a unified construction for numerous companies with associated safety tasks. Bush established the White Home Workplace of Homeland Safety to coordinate the U.S. authorities’s response to, and mitigation of, terrorist threats going through america.
The workplace was headed by former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, who went on to turn into the primary secretary of homeland safety when Congress formally established the division by regulation in 2002. For transparency, I served as a White Home-based adviser to Ridge throughout that course of as a particular assistant to the president.
A key Coast Guard accountability is port safety.
Petty Officer third Class Christopher Bokum/U.S. Coast Guard by way of AP
A large reorganization
When the division was created, a variety of federal companies was moved into the newly shaped division from throughout the federal government. Some got here from different Cupboard departments, together with the Secret Service from the Treasury Division, in addition to the Coast Guard and the then-new Transportation Safety Administration from the Division of Transportation.
Additionally, parts from a number of totally different departments had been rearranged to kind teams throughout the new division. As an illustration, Customs and Border Safety, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol consolidated parts from the Treasury, Justice and Agriculture departments, amongst others.
Different previously standalone companies, just like the Federal Emergency Administration Company, had been introduced into the brand new division.
And new companies had been created below its umbrella, together with what turned the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Safety Company, in addition to parts that concentrate on science, know-how and intelligence-gathering and evaluation.
From the start, and persevering with to the current, the division’s leaders confronted vital challenges merging all these companies – there have been 22 being joined collectively. The small print and technique of melding all these companies’ office cultures, personnel insurance policies, missions and finances allocations are vital. As an illustration, some had been army or quasi-military in nature, and others had been solely civilian organizations.
Members of a Federal Emergency Administration Company search and rescue workforce work through the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in October 2024 in North Carolina.
Mario Tama/Getty Pictures
Oversight complexity
However inside division challenges are simply a number of the huge tasks any secretary of homeland safety faces.
When it comes to congressional oversight, most Cupboard departments primarily report back to a selected so-called “authorizing” committee of jurisdiction within the Home of Representatives and within the Senate, along with the appropriations committees. However not the Division of Homeland Safety, as a result of it concerned a lot consolidation from current entities throughout authorities.
There are homeland safety committees within the Senate and the Home of Representatives that had been created to supervise the Division of Homeland Safety. Nevertheless, different committees weren’t made to cede their jurisdiction over the assorted companies pulled into the division.
As an illustration, the Home Transportation and Infrastructure Committee nonetheless retains major legislative jurisdiction over FEMA and the Coast Guard. This implies the division and its elements should reply to requests for briefings, witness testimony, info and legislative drafting help from many committees and subcommittees within the Home and Senate. Most federal companies obtain comparatively cohesive, singular congressional oversight. Against this, the Division of Homeland Safety should reply to disparate oversight authorities that usually inhibit reform and accountability.
In truth, regardless of the particular suggestion of the 9/11 Fee Report and urging from former division leaders, totally different parts of the Division of Homeland Safety report back to as many as 90 congressional committees and subcommittees.
Even throughout the govt department, different departments generally view the Division of Homeland Safety as the brand new child on the block, each throughout the Intelligence Neighborhood and amongst different regulation enforcement and security-related companies. This rivalry generally limits efficient coordination throughout the federal government. It’s additionally an issue internationally as a result of most allied and accomplice nations have extra consolidated nationwide safety providers. These difficulties harm employees’ morale and threaten nationwide safety by persevering with the dearth of coordination the division was meant to forestall.
The Secret Service protects the president and different key nationwide leaders.
AP Picture/Susan Walsh
Nationwide political discourse
The secretary of homeland safety is usually a goal for hot-button points in Congress, the media and the general public. That may complicate different work throughout the division.
As an illustration, immigration and border safety coverage has been a persistent and controversial problem in america. There are a number of border safety companies within the division. Coordinating all of their work is a problem, however being a political goal could make it more durable for the secretary to concurrently interact within the much less politically delicate missions of companies just like the Coast Guard, FEMA and the Secret Service.
The potential for political controversy additionally impacts personnel throughout the companies. Workers generally resent being affiliated with the bigger division due to its sprawling, competing and generally politically charged actions. Many longtime personnel need to return to their authentic departments, whereas some inside part companies need to be set freed from the division to function extra independently. This drags on morale, hurts retention and harms recruiting efforts for brand new personnel.
Regardless of these difficulties, the secretary of homeland safety stays a critically necessary function throughout the president’s Cupboard, and the workplace will proceed evolving because the division matures and threats to the nation’s safety evolve.
The deal with counterterrorism that instantly adopted 9/11 advanced into countering violent Islamist extremism round 2014 to scale back the probability that Individuals may go abroad to combat with the Islamic State group or different terrorist organizations. And the growing cybersecurity threats of right now – whether or not from different international locations like China or nonstate entities like worldwide ransomware gangs – require speedy and steady adaptation. The incoming administration will undoubtedly look to bolster border safety enforcement on the southern border.
This story is a part of a sequence of profiles of Cupboard and high-level administration positions.