Department of Homeland Security
November 26, 2002
With the Senate's 90-9 vote to pass the Homeland Security
Act, the Bush Administration gained approval to fold 170,000 employees from 22
agencies into the new Department of Homeland Security. Housed under the roof of
the new department will be such agencies as the Coast Guard, Customs Service,
Immigration and Naturalization Service, Federal Management Agency and the newly
created Transportation Security Administration. The Federal Bureau of
Investigation and Central Intelligence Agency will remain separate. Upon
signing the bill, President Bush announced that he will nominate White House
homeland security adviser Tom Ridge to be its first secretary. Bush also
announced that Navy Secretary Gordon England will be nominated for the post of
Deputy Secretary and that Drug Enforcement Administration Administrator Asa
Hutchinson, a former House member, will be nominated to serve as Undersecretary
for Border and Transportation Security. For an overview of the new department
click http://www.whitehouse.gov/homeland/.