Homeland Security Act

On September 11th, 2001 The United States of America had been attacked by terrorists. They killed more than 3,000 U.S. citizens. The United States was unprepared on how to deal with such an attack. The attack on New York's World Trade Center has been name the worst terror attack in U.S. history. After these terror attacks the Homeland Security Act of 2002 was developed.

"The primary mission of the Homeland Security Act is to prevent terrorist attacks within the United States; reduce the vulnerability of the United States to terrorism; and minimize the damage, and assist in the recovery, from terrorist attacks that do occur within the United States."1 Inside the Homeland Security Act it states the secretary of Homeland Security now has the authority and the power to direct and control investigations of terrorism and how to prevent terrorism.

In 2002 the Homeland Security Act was created along with the US Department of Homeland Security. Many organizations made up this US Department of Homeland Security such as the US Coast Guard, the US Secret Service, and the Transportation Security Administration. The Department was given billions of dollars and approximately 180,000 new federal employees. The US Department of Homeland Security has a very similar mission as the Homeland Security Act. "The mission is to ensure the safety and security of the United States from terrorist attacks and other disasters."2 The main purpose is to help prevent terrorism; the US Department of Homeland Security created the National Threat Advisory system. The was this system works is it is color coded. Green=low threat to Red=severe threat. This color coded system was put into place to help lower the impact on future terrorist attacks. Another responsibility of the US Department of Homeland Security is natural disasters such as hurricane and earthquakes. An organization that we are familiar with, living close to the Gulf of Mexico, is the Federal Emergency Management Agency...