United States Secretary of Homeland Security

The United States Secretary of Homeland Security is the head of the United States Department of Homeland Security, the body concerned with protecting the American homeland and the safety of American citizens. The Secretary is a member of the President's Cabinet. The position was created following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The new department consisted primarily of components transferred from other cabinet departments because of their role in homeland security, such as the Plum Island Animal Disease Center, previously in the Department of Agriculture. It did not, however, include the FBI or the CIA.

Traditionally, the order of the presidential line of succession is determined (after the Vice President, Speaker of the House, and President pro tempore of the Senate) by the order of the creation of the cabinet positions, and is mandated as such under . However, the Secretary of Homeland Security has not been formally written into the line of succession.

Senate Bill 442, approved by the Senate on July 26, 2005, would place the Secretary of Homeland Security after the Attorney General and before the Secretary of the Interior in the line of succession if it becomes law. A similar House bill, House Resolution 1455, is currently pending before the House Judiciary Committee. [http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:h.01455:

No.	Assistants to the President for the Office of Homeland Security	Term	President(s) served under
1	Tom Ridge	October 8, 2001 – January 24, 2003	George W. Bush
2	Frances Townsend	May 28, 2004 – present	George W. Bush
No.	Secretaries of Homeland Security	Term	President(s) served under
1	Tom Ridge	January 24, 2003 – February 1, 2005	George W. Bush
2	Michael Chertoff	February 15, 2005 – present	George W. Bush

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