On Nov. 25 President Bush signed legislation creating the Department of Homeland Security. The creation of the department marks the biggest reorganization of the federal government since the Department of Defense was created more than 50 years ago.

The mission of the new Cabinet-level department is to prevent terrorist attacks within the United States, reduce America's vulnerability to terrorism and minimize the damage and recover from attacks that do occur. The agency will incorporate all or parts of 22 agencies and 170,000 workers and will give state and local agencies a single point of contact for homeland security issues.

In his weekly radio address on Nov. 23, Bush said, “This new department will coordinate our response to any future emergency. It will help us know who's coming into our country and who's going out. This new department will bring together the best intelligence information about our vulnerabilities to terrorist attack so that we can act quickly to protect America.”

The president signed the legislation creating the department after Congress overwhelmingly approved it. The U.S. House of Representatives passed the legislation 299-121; the U.S. Senate passed it 90-9.

The department will be divided into four sub-agencies:

• Border and Transportation Security;
• Emergency Preparedness and Response;
• Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Countermeasures; and
• Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection.

It will incorporate agencies from across the federal government, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Immigration and Naturalization Service, U.S. Coast Guard; Customs Service; Border Patrol, Secret Service, Transportation Security Administration, and the border inspection part of Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

The new department would build upon FEMA as one of its key components, continuing the agency's efforts to reduce the loss of life and property and to protect the nation's institutions from all types of hazards through a comprehensive, risk-based, all-hazards emergency management program of preparedness, mitigation, response and recovery.

The department would assume authority over federal grant programs for local and state first responders, which are currently managed by various offices in the Department of Justice, the Department of Health and Human Services, and FEMA.

Tom Ridge, the president's nominee for secretary of the new Department of Homeland Security, reportedly told International Association of Fire Chiefs President Chief Bruegman shortly after the signing ceremony that he will work to keep the FIRE Act separate from other homeland security funding initiatives in future negotiations. The program is the only one that provides direct funding to fire departments.