Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

262 • HOMELAND SECURITYby about 100 staff members. President Bush invited Governor TomRidge of Pennsylvania to become director of this office. After resigninghis governorship, Tom Ridge was sworn in as Director ofHomeland Security on 8 October 2001. This office replaced the positionheld formerly by Richard Clarke, who headed the White Houseoffice created during the administration of Bill Clinton to coordinatecounterterrorism efforts. In turn, Richard Clarke was appointed tohead a new Office of Cybersecurity. The new Office of HomelandSecurity seeks to coordinate the actions of the 46 federal agenciesthat currently enforce or implement counterterrorism policies.The U.S. Congress turned the Office of Homeland Security intoa cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security (DHS) by theHomeland Security Act of 2002 (Public Law 107-269). The new departmentnow consolidates under one jurisdiction several U.S. agenciesinvolved with different aspects of homeland security, includingthe U.S. Coast Guard, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, theTransportation Security Administration, the Federal Emergency ManagementAgency, and the Secret Service. In 2008 the DHS received$34.3 billion in funding. The acknowledged funding for all counterterrorismactivities, including homeland security and the “global war onterrorism,” actually exceeded $180 billion in 2008 alone. By way ofcomparison, in 1999 Congress had appropriated only $205.3 millionfor domestic counterterrorism measures.Within the United States, homeland security efforts have involvedmany initiatives, including the creation of a Domestic PreparednessProgram to train state and local agencies to respond to threats and actualuses of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and the expandedreorganization of federal agencies to combat terrorism. More than 46agencies are involved, ranging from the Interagency Working Groupon Counterterrorism, to the Federal Bureau of Investigation CounterterrorismCenter and its National Infrastructure Protection Center,in addition to the Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTFs), which havegrown from 16 at the time of the September 11 attacks to 106 bythe end of 2008. In addition, the role of the Department of Defensehas been greatly expanded, not only regarding external threats butalso domestic terrorism, and extensive research and developmentprograms undertaken that place heavy emphasis on the creation andrefinement of counterterrorism technology to address the challengesof mass terrorism and also to meet the growing requirements for far