Executive Order 13228: Establishing the Office of Homeland Security

Explanation and Analysis of the Document

Section 2 states that the purpose of the establishment of the Office of Homeland Security is “to develop and coordinate the implementation of a comprehensive national strategy to secure the United States from terrorist threats or attacks.” Its function (section 3) is “to coordinate the executive branch's efforts to detect, prepare for, prevent, protect against, respond to, and recover from terrorist attacks within the United States.” The office is to be responsible for preparing a national strategy for preventing and responding to terrorist threats, with emphasis on threat detection. Considerable emphasis is placed on coordination among federal agencies in the sharing of information so that “all appropriate and necessary intelligence and law enforcement information relating to homeland security is disseminated to and exchanged among appropriate executive departments and agencies responsible for homeland security.”

Executive Order Establishing the Office of Homeland Security attempts to address every aspect of the terrorist threat and the nation's response. Thus, for example, the Office of Homeland Security is to coordinate domestic exercises and simulations for purposes of training, efforts at public preparedness, and the provision of federal and state assistance to local authorities. Information about immigration, visas, and cargo shipments is to be exchanged by appropriate federal agencies. Plans are to be developed for the protection of the nation's energy facilities, information systems, major public and private facilities, public events, transportation networks, water systems, and livestock and agricultural products.

Further, the office is to coordinate efforts to monitor and interdict any nuclear, chemical, or biological materials that might be used in a terrorist attack. The National Economic Council is to be responsible for stabilizing financial markets. These and other measures would help ensure that the federal government could anticipate terrorist threats, thwart them, and, in the event of a successful attack, minimize their effects. In sum, the Office of Homeland Security is responsible for “coordinating the domestic response efforts of all departments and agencies in the event of an imminent terrorist threat and during and in the immediate aftermath of a terrorist attack . . . and shall be the principal point of contact for and to the President with respect to coordination of such efforts.”