The Homeland Security Council (HSC) is an entity within the White House Office tasked with advising the President on matters relating to Homeland Security. The current Homeland Security Advisor is John Brennan who holds the rank of Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism.
Contents |
The Homeland Security Council (HSC) is an entity within the White House Office and was created by Executive Order 13228 on October 29, 2001 and subsequently expanded on by Homeland Security Presidential Directive 1.[1] It served as the successor to the Office of Homeland Security, established on September 20, 2001, immediately after to the September 11 attacks. Congress subsequently codified the HSC in the Homeland Security Act of 2002, charging it with advising the President on homeland security matters.[2]
On February 23, 2009, the Obama administration released Presidential Study Directive 1. This memorandum ordered a 60-day inter-agency review of the White House homeland security and counter-terrorism structure. The review recommended that the president merge the staff supporting the Homeland Security Council with the staff supporting the National Security Council.[3][4] That recommendation was implemented to create a single National Security Staff. On May 26, 2009, Barack Obama signed the recommendation to merge the Homeland Security Council and National Security Council staffs into one National Security Staff (NSS). Policymakers and observers have debated whether the HSC staff should remain an independent entity with the White House or merged with the NSC staff.[5] The HSC and NSC continue to exist by statute as independent councils of leadership advising the president.[6]
The Homeland Security Council is responsible for assessing the objectives, commitments, and risks of the United States, and for making recommendations to the president with respect to homeland security policy.
The HSC was similar to its national security counterpart, the National Security Council (NSC), which was established in the National Security Act of 1947. The HSC also maintained structural similarities with the NSC; the HSC consisted of full-time staff organized by subject areas relating to homeland security missions, with the Council itself being composed of Cabinet members and senior White House officials whose departments have principal interests in homeland security policy-making. The Joint Chiefs of Staff consist of the primary military advisers to the Homeland Security Council, as well as the National Security Council.[7] Due to the recommendations implemented by Obama, the Homeland Security Council and the National Security Council now have combined staff, the National Security Staff (NSS).
While similar in name, the Department of Homeland Security is a distinct federal executive department; unlike DHS, the HSC functioned as part of the Executive Office of the President, drawing staff from across federal agencies and under the direct control of the president.
| Structure of the United States Homeland Security Council (Current) | |
|---|---|
| Chair | Barack Obama (President of the United States) |
| Statutory Attendees | Joe Biden (Vice President of the United States) Tim Geithner (Secretary of the Treasury) Leon Panetta (Secretary of Defense) Eric Holder (Attorney General) Kathleen Sebelius (Secretary of Health and Human Services) Ray LaHood (Secretary of Transportation) Janet Napolitano (Secretary of Homeland Security) Craig Fugate (Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency) Robert Mueller (Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation) John Brennan (Homeland Security Advisor) |
| Additional Attendees | General Martin E. Dempsey (Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) William Daley (Chief of Staff) Ron Klain (Chief of Staff to the Vice President) Thomas Donilon (Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs) Jeffrey Zients, acting (Director of the Office of Management and Budget) |
| Occasional Participants | Hillary Rodham Clinton (Secretary of State) Tom Vilsack (Secretary of Agriculture) Ken Salazar (Secretary of the Interior) Steven Chu (Secretary of Energy) Hilda Solis (Secretary of Labor) Gary Locke (Secretary of Commerce) Eric Shinseki (Secretary of Veterans Affairs) Lisa P. Jackson (Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency) Gene Sperling (Assistant to the President for Economic Policy) Melody Barnes (Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy) |