Homeland Security Act of 2002

After the September 11, 2001, attacks, President George W. Bush created an Office of Homeland Security in the White House, but members of Congress in both parties argued that a coordinating office lacked authority over the dozens of agencies responsible for border security, transportation, emergency response, and intelligence. In June 2002 Bush proposed a new department. After months of debate, largely over whether its employees would keep civil service and union protections, Congress passed the Homeland Security Act, and Bush signed it on November 25, 2002.

The act brought together 22 agencies and about 170,000 employees, including the Coast Guard, the Secret Service, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Transportation Security Administration, and the Customs Service. It abolished the Immigration and Naturalization Service and divided its work among new bureaus that became U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Customs and Border Protection. The department began operating on January 24, 2003, and most agencies moved into it on March 1, 2003. The act gave the Secretary flexibility to set new personnel rules, a provision later limited by courts and Congress.

The department, now with more than 250,000 employees, has been reorganized several times, including by the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006 after criticism of FEMA's response to Hurricane Katrina. Congressional oversight of it remains fragmented across many committees. Supporters say consolidation improved coordination and border security, while critics say the department is too large to manage well and that combining disaster response with immigration enforcement mixes missions. Since 2025, immigration enforcement has become its dominant priority, and proposals to shrink or restructure FEMA have revived debate over its design.