DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY

Department of Homeland Security

On the evening of June 6, 2002, President Bush announced, in a nationally televised speech, that he would ask Congress to approve a cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security entrusted with the primary responsibility of protecting the United States from attacks from terrorist groups. The plan was that such a department would inherit a work force and funding from existing federal agencies that the proposed new department would absorb. The departments to be absorbed included the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), the Secret Service, Border Patrol, Customs Service, and the Coast Guard. And, as reflected ...