08 October 2001
Text: Summary of the President's Executive Order on Homeland Security Oct. 8
(Bush establishes White House office to deal with terrorist threats)
(2370)
President Bush signed an executive order October 8 establishing the
White House Office of Homeland Security, to be headed by the Assistant
to the President for Homeland Security Tom Ridge, who gave up the
governorship of the state of Pennsylvania to take the job.
Bush signed the order during Ridge's swearing-in ceremony at the White
House.
The new office is to develop "a comprehensive national strategy to
secure the United States from terrorist threats or attacks," the
summary says, and will coordinate the efforts of federal, state and
local governments and private entities to protect against as well as
respond to terrorist attacks.
Following is the White House text of the summary of the executive
order:
(begin text)
The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
October 8, 2001
Summary of the President's Executive Order
The Office of Homeland Security & the Homeland Security Council
The Office of Homeland Security
Mission & Management
The President will establish the Office of Homeland Security that will
be headed by the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security --
Governor Tom Ridge.
The mission of the Office will be to develop and coordinate the
implementation of a comprehensive national strategy to secure the
United States from terrorist threats or attacks. The Office will
coordinate the executive branch's efforts to detect, prepare for,
prevent, protect against, respond to, and recover from terrorist
attacks within the United States.
National Strategy
The Office will work with executive departments and agencies, state
and local governments, and private entities to ensure the adequacy of
the national strategy for detecting, preparing for, preventing,
protecting against, responding to, and recovering from terrorist
threats or attacks within the United States and will periodically
review and coordinate revisions to that strategy as necessary.
Detection
The Office will identify priorities and coordinate efforts for
collection and analysis of information within the United States
regarding threats of terrorism against the United States and
activities of terrorists or terrorist groups within the United States.
The Office will also identify, in coordination with the Assistant to
the President for National Security Affairs, priorities for collection
of intelligence outside the United States regarding threats of
terrorism within the United States. The Office will work with federal,
state, and local agencies to:
-- facilitate collection from state and local governments and private
entities of information pertaining to terrorist threats or activities
within the United States;
-- coordinate and prioritize the requirements for foreign intelligence
relating to terrorism within the United States of executive
departments and agencies responsible for homeland security, and
provide these requirements and priorities to the Director of Central
Intelligence and other agencies responsible for collection of foreign
intelligence;
-- coordinate efforts to ensure that all executive departments and
agencies that have intelligence collection responsibilities have
sufficient technological capabilities and resources to collect
intelligence and data relating to terrorist activities or possible
terrorist acts within the United States, working with the Assistant to
the President for National Security Affairs, as appropriate;
-- coordinate development of monitoring protocols and equipment for
use in detecting the release of biological, chemical, and radiological
hazards; and
-- ensure that, to the extent permitted by law, 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
and, where appropriate for reasons of homeland security, promote
exchange of such information with and among state and local
governments and private entities.
Preparedness
The Office of Homeland Security will coordinate national efforts to
prepare for and mitigate the consequences of terrorist threats or
attacks within the United States. In performing this function, the
Office will work with federal, state, and local agencies, and private
entities to:
-- review and assess the adequacy of the portions of all federal
emergency response plans that pertain to terrorist threats or attacks
within the United States;
-- coordinate domestic exercises and simulations designed to assess
and practice systems that would be called upon to respond to a
terrorist threat or attack within the United States and coordinate
programs and activities for training federal, state, and local
employees who would be called upon to respond to such a threat or
attack;
-- coordinate national efforts to ensure public health preparedness
for a terrorist attack, including reviewing vaccination policies and
reviewing the adequacy of and, if necessary, increasing vaccine and
pharmaceutical stockpiles and hospital capacity;
-- coordinate federal assistance to state and local authorities and
non-governmental organizations to prepare for and respond to terrorist
threats or attacks within the United States;
-- ensure that national preparedness programs and activities for
terrorist threats or attacks are developed and are regularly evaluated
under appropriate standards and that resources are allocated to
improving and sustaining preparedness based on such evaluations; and
-- ensure the readiness and coordinated deployment of federal response
teams to respond to terrorist threats or attacks, working with the
Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, when
appropriate.
Prevention
The Office will coordinate efforts to prevent terrorist attacks within
the United States. In performing this function, the Office shall work
with federal, state, and local agencies, and private entities to:
-- facilitate the exchange of information among such agencies relating
to immigration and visa matters and shipments of cargo; and, working
with the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs,
ensure coordination among such agencies to prevent the entry of
terrorists and terrorist materials and supplies into the United States
and facilitate removal of such terrorists from the United States, when
appropriate;
-- coordinate efforts to investigate terrorist threats and attacks
within the United States; and
-- coordinate efforts to improve the security of United States
borders, territorial waters, and airspace in order to prevent acts of
terrorism within the United States, working with the Assistant to the
President for National Security Affairs, when appropriate.
Protection
The Office will coordinate efforts to protect the United States and
its critical infrastructure from the consequences of terrorist
attacks. In performing this function, the Office shall work with
federal, state, and local agencies, and private entities to:
-- strengthen measures for protecting energy production, transmission,
and distribution services and critical facilities; other utilities;
telecommunications; facilities that produce, use, store, or dispose of
nuclear material; and other critical infrastructure services and
critical facilities within the United States from terrorist attack;
-- coordinate efforts to protect critical public and privately owned
information systems within the United States from terrorist attack;
-- develop criteria for reviewing whether appropriate security
measures are in place at major public and privately owned facilities
within the United States;
-- coordinate domestic efforts to ensure that special events
determined by appropriate senior officials to have national
significance are protected from terrorist attack;
-- coordinate efforts to protect transportation systems within the
United States, including railways, highways, shipping, ports and
waterways, and airports and civilian aircraft, from terrorist attack;
-- coordinate efforts to protect United States livestock, agriculture,
and systems for the provision of water and food for human use and
consumption from terrorist attack; and
-- coordinate efforts to prevent unauthorized access to, development
of, and unlawful importation into the United States of, chemical,
biological, radiological, nuclear, explosive, or other related
materials that have the potential to be used in terrorist attacks.
Response and Recovery
The Office will coordinate efforts to respond to and promote recovery
from terrorist threats or attacks within the United States. In
performing this function, the Office shall work with federal, state,
and local agencies, and private entities to:
-- coordinate efforts to ensure rapid restoration of transportation
systems, energy production, transmission, and distribution systems;
telecommunications; other utilities; and other critical infrastructure
facilities after disruption by a terrorist threat or attack;
-- coordinate efforts to ensure rapid restoration of public and
private critical information systems after disruption by a terrorist
threat or attack;
-- work with the National Economic Council to coordinate efforts to
stabilize United States financial markets after a terrorist threat or
attack and manage the immediate economic and financial consequences of
the incident;
-- coordinate federal plans and programs to provide medical,
financial, and other assistance to victims of terrorist attacks and
their families; and
-- coordinate containment and removal of biological, chemical,
radiological, explosive, or other hazardous materials in the event of
a terrorist threat or attack involving such hazards and coordinate
efforts to mitigate the effects of such an attack.
Incident Management
The Assistant to the President for Homeland Security will be the
individual primarily 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 within the United States and shall be the principal
point of contact for and to the President with respect to coordination
of such efforts. The Assistant to the President for Homeland Security
will coordinate with the Assistant to the President for National
Security Affairs, as appropriate.
Continuity of Government
The Assistant to the President for Homeland Security, in coordination
with the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs,
will review plans and preparations for ensuring the continuity of the
Federal Government in the event of a terrorist attack that threatens
the safety and security of the United States Government or its
leadership.
Public Affairs
The Office, subject to the direction of the White House Office of
Communications, shall coordinate the strategy of the executive branch
for communicating with the public in the event of a terrorist threat
or attack within the United States. The Office also will coordinate
the development of programs for educating the public about the nature
of terrorist threats and appropriate precautions and responses.
Review of Legal Authorities and Development of Legislative Proposals
The Office will coordinate a periodic review and assessment of the
legal authorities available to executive departments and agencies to
permit them to perform the functions described in this order. When the
Office determines that such legal authorities are inadequate, the
Office will develop, in consultation with executive departments and
agencies, proposals for presidential action and legislative proposals
for submission to the Office of Management and Budget to enhance the
ability of executive departments and agencies to perform those
functions. The Office will work with state and local governments in
assessing the adequacy of their legal authorities to permit them to
detect, prepare for, prevent, protect against, and recover from
terrorist threats and attacks.
Budget Review
The Assistant to the President for Homeland Security, in consultation
with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget and the heads
of executive departments and agencies, will identify programs that
contribute to the Administration's strategy for homeland security and,
in the development of the President's annual budget submission, shall
review and provide advice to the heads of departments and agencies for
such programs. The Assistant to the President for Homeland Security
will provide advice to the Director on the level and use of funding in
departments and agencies for homeland security-related activities and,
prior to the Director's forwarding of the proposed annual budget
submission to the President for transmittal to Congress, will certify
to the Director the funding levels that the Assistant to the President
for Homeland Security believes are necessary and appropriate for the
homeland security-related activities of the executive branch.
Administration
The Office of Homeland Security will be directed by the Assistant to
the President for Homeland Security. The Office of Administration
within the Executive Office of the President shall provide the Office
of Homeland Security with such personnel, funding, and administrative
support, to the extent permitted by law and subject to the
availability of appropriations, as directed by the Chief of Staff to
carry out the provisions of this order.
Heads of executive departments and agencies are authorized, to the
extent permitted by law, to detail or assign personnel of such
departments and agencies to the Office of Homeland Security upon
request of the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security,
subject to the approval of the Chief of Staff.
The Homeland Security Council
The President's Executive Order establishes a Homeland Security
Council which will be responsible for advising and assisting the
President with respect to all aspects of homeland security. The
Council will serve as the mechanism for ensuring coordination of
homeland security-related activities of executive departments and
agencies and effective development and implementation of homeland
security policies.
The Council will have as its members the President, the Vice
President, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Defense,
the Attorney General, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the
Secretary of Transportation, the Director of the Federal Emergency
Management Agency, the Director of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, the Director of Central Intelligence, the Assistant to
the President for Homeland Security, and such other officers of the
executive branch as the President may from time to time designate. The
Chief of Staff, the Chief of Staff to the Vice President, the
Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, the Counsel
to the President, and the Director of the Office of Management and
Budget also are invited to attend any Council meeting. The Secretary
of State, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of the Interior,
the Secretary of Energy, the Secretary of Labor, the Secretary of
Commerce, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, the Administrator of the
Environmental Protection Agency, the Assistant to the President for
Economic Policy, and the Assistant to the President for Domestic
Policy shall be invited to attend meetings pertaining to their
responsibilities. The heads of other executive departments and
agencies and other senior officials shall be invited to attend Council
meetings when appropriate.
The Council will meet at the President's direction. When the President
is absent from a meeting of the Council, at the President's direction
the Vice President may preside. The Assistant to the President for
Homeland Security will be responsible, at the President's direction,
for determining the agenda, ensuring that necessary papers are
prepared, and recording Council actions and Presidential decisions.
(end White House text)
(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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