The tactics of modern terrorists are unbounded by the traditional rules of warfare. Terrorists transform objects of daily life into weapons, visiting death and destruction on unsuspecting civilians. Defeating this enemy requires a focused and organized response. The President took a critical step by proposing the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. The creation of the Department, the most significant reorganization of the federal government in more than a half-century, will give the United States a foundation for our efforts to secure the homeland. The Department would serve as the unifying core of the vast national network of organizations and institutions involved in homeland security.
American Federalism and Homeland Security
American democracy is rooted in the precepts of federalism -a system of government in which our state governments share power with federal institutions. The Tenth Amendment reserves to the states and to the people all power not specifically delegated to the federal government. Our structure of overlapping federal, state, and local governance-the United States has more than 87,000 different jurisdictions-provides unique opportunities and challenges. The opportunity comes from the expertise and commitment of local agencies and organizations involved in homeland security. The challenge is to develop complementary systems that avoid duplication and ensure essential requirements are met. To meet the terrorist threat, we must increase collaboration and coordination-in law enforcement and prevention, emergency response and recovery, policy development and implementation-so that public and private resources are better aligned to secure the homeland.
American People
All of us have a key role to play in America's war on terrorism. Terrorists may live and travel among us and attack our homes and our places of business, governance, and recreation. In order to defeat an enemy who uses our very way of life as a weapon-who takes advantage of our freedoms and liberties-every American must be willing to do his or her part to protect our homeland.
Since September 11, thousands of individuals have stepped forward to ask, "What can I do to help?" The President launched Citizen Corps in January 2002 to help channel this volunteerism, and individuals in all 50 states and U.S. territories have signed up since. In support of this effort, Citizen Corps released a guidebook-produced by the National Crime Prevention Council with support from the Department of Justice-to provide the American people with information about the latest disaster preparedness techniques. As part of Citizen Corps, the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Community Emergency Response Team program trains volunteers to support our first responders by providing immediate help to victims and by organizing volunteers at disaster sites. Citizen Corps is expanding the Neighborhood Watch Program to incorporate terrorism prevention and education into its existing crime prevention mission. Volunteers in Police Service will encourage the use of civilian volunteers to support resource-constrained police departments. The Medical Reserve Corps will provide communities with medical volunteers -both active and retired-who can assist health care professionals during a large-scale local emergency. Finally, Operation TIPS (Terrorism Information and Prevention System) will be a nationwide program to help thousands of American truck drivers, letter carriers, train conductors, ship captains, and utility workers report potential terrorist activity. Operation TIPS will begin a pilot program in ten cities in August 2002.
Private Sector
Given our traditions of limited government, the American private sector provides most of our goods and services. Private companies are a key source of new ideas and innovative technologies that will enable us to triumph over the terrorist threat. There are, for example, pharmaceutical companies producing new vaccines against dangerous biological agents and information technology firms investing in new communications technology for first responders. The President has sought to tap into this creative genius by establishing a national Homeland Security Advisory Council and calling on private citizens to serve on similar boards at the state and local level.
The private sector also owns the vast majority of America's critical infrastructure. It includes crucial systems such as the agricultural and food distribution processes that put food on our tables, utility companies that provide water and power to our homes and businesses, and transportation systems that fly us from city to city and bus our children to and from school. The private sector also includes many of our academic institutions and a host of scientific, medical, engineering, and technological research facilities.
A close partnership between the government and private sector is essential to ensuring that existing vulnerabilities to terrorism in our critical infrastructure are identified and eliminated as quickly as possible. The private sector should conduct risk assessments on their holdings and invest in systems to protect key assets. The internalization of these costs is not only a matter of sound corporate governance and good corporate citizenship but also an essential safeguard of economic assets for shareholders, employees, and the Nation. (See Costs of Homeland Security chapter for additional discussion.)
State and Local Governments
State, county, municipal, and local governments fund and operate the emergency services that would respond in the event of a terrorist attack. Ultimately, all manmade and natural disasters are local events-with local units being the first to respond and the last to leave. Since September 11, every state and many cities and counties are addressing homeland security issues either through an existing office or through a newly created office. Many have established anti-terrorism task forces. Many have also published or are preparing homeland security strategies, some based on existing plans for dealing with natural disasters. Each level of government must coordinate with other levels to minimize redundancies in homeland security actions and ensure integration of efforts. The federal government must seek to utilize state and local knowledge about their communities and then share relevant information with the state and local entities positioned to act on it. (A summary of homeland security actions taken to date by states, counties, and cities is contained in a companion volume.)
Federal Executive Branch
The President's most important job is to protect the American people. To do so, he relies on the departments and agencies of the executive branch, which are responsible for executing and enforcing the federal laws, as well as the White House and other offices of the Executive Office of the President, which develop and implement his policies and programs.
Department of Homeland Security. The President's proposal to create the Department of Homeland Security is the outcome of a comprehensive study of the federal government's current structure, the experience gained since September 11, and the new information we have learned about our enemies while fighting a war. The new Department would bring together 22 entities with critical homeland security missions and would provide us for the first time with a single federal department whose primary mission is to protect our homeland against terrorist threats. The Department would play a central role in implementing the National Strategy for Homeland Security. It would be responsible for many specific initiatives and would also streamline relations with the federal government for our state and local governments, private sector, and the American people. This Department, although focused primarily on homeland security, would continue to execute the non-homeland security missions of its constituent parts.
White House Office of Homeland Security. Even after the Department of Homeland Security begins to function, the White House Office of Homeland Security will continue to play a key role advising the President and coordinating the interagency process. It will continue to work with the Office of Management and Budget to develop and defend the President's homeland security budget proposals. It will certify that the budgets of other executive branch departments will enable them to carry out their homeland security responsibilities.
Department of Defense. The Department of Defense contributes to homeland security through its military missions overseas, homeland defense, and support to civil authorities. Ongoing military operations abroad have reduced the terrorist threat against the United States. There are three circumstances under which the Department would be involved in improving security at home. In extraordinary circumstances, the Department would conduct military missions such as combat air patrols or maritime defense operations. The Department would take the lead in defending the people and the territory of our country, supported by other agencies. Plans for such contingencies will continue to be coordinated, as appropriate, with the National Security Council, Homeland Security Council, and other federal departments and agencies. Second, the Department of Defense would be involved during emergencies such as responding to an attack or to forest fires, floods, tornadoes, or other catastrophes. In these circumstances, the Department may be asked to act quickly to provide capabilities that other agencies do not have. Finally, the Department of Defense would also take part in "limited scope" missions where other agencies have the lead-for example, security at a special event like the recent Olympics.
Other federal departments and agencies. Many other government departments and agencies support homeland security as part of their overall mission. The Attorney General, as America's chief law enforcement officer, will lead our Nation's law enforcement effort to detect, prevent, and investigate terrorist activity within the United States. The Department of Agriculture's Food Safety Inspection and Agricultural Research Services have important homeland security responsibilities for preventing agroterrorism. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health, both part of the Department of Health and Human Services, provide critical expertise and resources related to bioterrorism. Several other federal entities have significant counterterrorism intelligence responsibilities, including the CIA's Counterterrorist Center and the FBI's Counterterrorism Division and Criminal Intelligence Section. The CIA is specifically responsible for gathering and analyzing all information regarding potential terrorist threats abroad. The proposed Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection Division within the Department of Homeland Security would be able not only to access and analyze homeland security information, but also to translate it into warning and protective action.
Intergovernmental coordination. There is a vital need for cooperation between the federal government and state and local governments on a scale never before seen in the United States. Cooperation must occur both horizontally (within each level of government) and vertically (among various levels of government). Under the President's proposal, the creation of the Department of Homeland Security will simplify the process by which governors, mayors, and county leaders interact with the federal government. We cannot and will not create separate and specialized coordinating bodies for every functional area of government. To do so would merely replicate the stovepiped system that exists today and would defeat a main purpose of creating the new Department.
Because of our federalist traditions and our large number of local governments, the federal government must look to state governments to facilitate close coordination and cooperation among all levels of government-federal, state, and local. Therefore, the President calls on each governor to establish a single Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) for the state, to serve as his or her primary coordinating body with the federal government. This would realign the existing Anti-Terrorism Task Forces, established after September 11 in 93 federal judicial districts nationwide, to serve as the law enforcement component of the broader HSTFs. The HSTFs would provide a collaborative, cost-effective structure for effectively communicating to all organizations and citizens. They would help streamline and coordinate all federal, regional, and local programs. They would also fit neatly into the regional emergency response network that the Department of Homeland Security would inherit from FEMA.
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