The U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security is a

standing committee A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...

of the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

. Its responsibilities include U.S. security legislation and oversight of the

Department of Homeland Security The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior or home ministries of other countries. Its stated missions involve anti-terr ...

Role of the committee

The committee conducts oversight and handles legislation (and resolutions) related to the security of the United States. The committee may amend, approve, or

table Table may refer to: * Table (furniture), a piece of furniture with a flat surface and one or more legs * Table (landform), a flat area of land * Table (information), a data arrangement with rows and columns * Table (database), how the table data ...

homeland security Homeland security is an American national security term for "the national effort to ensure a homeland that is safe, secure, and resilient against terrorism and other hazards where American interests, aspirations, and ways of life can thrive" t ...

related bills. It also has the power to hold hearings, conduct investigations, and

subpoena A subpoena (; also subpœna, supenna or subpena) or witness summons is a writ issued by a government agency, most often a court, to compel testimony by a witness or production of evidence under a penalty for failure. There are two common types of ...

witnesses. Additionally, the committee has authorization and policy oversight responsibilities over the

Rules of the committee

The committee meets on the first Wednesday of each month while the House is in session. It is not permitted to conduct business unless a quorum is present, which the rules define as one third of its members. A majority of members are required for certain actions including: issuing a subpoena, entering executive session, and immunizing a witness. Committee members have access to classified information but must adhere to stringent access control procedures.

History of the committee

In the 109th Congress, the House Select Committee on Homeland Security was established on June 19, 2002, pursuant to H. Res. 449 (adopted by voice vote). The committee was composed of nine members of the House: Mr. Armey, chairman; Mr. DeLay; Mr. Watts of Oklahoma; Ms. Pryce of Ohio; Mr. Portman; Ms. Pelosi; Mr. Frost; Mr. Menendez; and Ms. DeLauro. The mandate of the Select Committee in the 107th Congress was to “develop recommendations and report to the House on such matters that relate to the establishment of a department of

.” The Select Committee accomplished its mandate on November 22, 2002, when the House concurred in the Senate amendment to H.R. 5005 by unanimous consent and cleared H.R. 5005 for the President. The bill was presented to the President on November 22, 2002, and was signed on November 25, 2002, becoming Public Law number 107-296, the " Homeland Security Act of 2002". The termination date of the House Select Committee on Homeland Security was “after final disposition of a bill including the final disposition of any veto message on such bill,” which occurred on November 25, 2002. The second select committee was formed in 2003 at the beginning of the 108th Congress as a select committee with Rep. Christopher Cox of

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as its chairman and Jim Turner of

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

as its Ranking Member. The creation of the committee was necessitated by the creation of the

. As an executive branch department, the newly formed Department of Homeland Security required congressional counterparts to facilitate legislative action and oversight. The committee was made permanent when it was elevated to

standing Standing, also referred to as orthostasis, is a position in which the body is held in an ''erect'' ("orthostatic") position and supported only by the feet. Although seemingly static, the body rocks slightly back and forth from the ankle in the s ...

status by a vote of the House of Representatives on January 4, 2005, on the opening day of the

109th Congress The 109th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives, from January 3, 2005 to January 3, 2007, dur ...

, again with Rep. Chris Cox as its first permanent chairman. Rep. Bennie G. Thompson of

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was the committee's first permanent Ranking Member. After Chairman Cox resigned from Congress in July 2005 to become the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Rep.

Peter T. King Peter Thomas King (born April 5, 1944) is a former American politician who represented New York in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1993 to 2021. A member of the Republican Party, he represented a South Shore Long Island district that i ...

of New York served as chairman for the remainder of the 109th Congress. As Congress switched parties at the beginning of the 110th Congress, Rep. Bennie G. Thompson became the Chairman of the Committee and Rep. Peter King the Ranking Member. House control switched parties again at the beginning of the 112th Congress in 2011, and King again became the chairman, and Thompson the Ranking Member. As the House switched parties at the beginning of the 116th Congress, Thompson again assumed the chair. The Committee continues to operate in a bipartisan manner, passing almost all of its legislation out of the Committee unanimously.

Hearings

Airport computed tomography (CT) scanners

In November 2017, the full Homeland Security Committee held a hearing to understand how fast the U.S. government could install CT scanners into every airport in the country in order to fight threats to airlines. The hearing focused on the

Transportation Security Administration The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that has authority over the security of transportation systems within, and connecting to the United States. It was created ...

's (TSA) role in keeping the country secure. The hearing was scheduled because a classified security briefing that was held earlier revealed vulnerabilities to the aviation system that concerned committee members. The latest threats, according to committee Chairman Michael McCaul, "were terrorists using electronic devices and laptops as bombs, and exploding the device on an airplane while the plane is in flight."

DHS Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction (CWMD) Office

On December 7, 2017, the Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Communications held a hearing about the creation of a new office within the

(DHS) called the Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction (CWMD) Office. “The purpose of the CWMD is to work every day to prevent another catastrophic attack, one using weapons or materials that have the potential to kill our citizens in numbers that dwarf previous attacks,” said James McDonnell, assistant secretary for countering weapons of mass destruction and director of the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office for within DHS. In his remarks, the subcommittee chairman Rep. Dan Donovan (R-NY) said that the threat of weapons of mass destruction "has changed and become more diverse." One witness discussed drone delivery of biological, chemical and nuclear weapons as one of the newest threats to

Fiscal year 2018 budget oversight

In June 2017, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly testified before the committee regarding DHS's piece of President Trump's Fiscal Year 2018 Budget. During the hearing, members of the committee from both parties "expressed opposition to the Trump administration's proposed budget that would cut funding for training and deployment for local security programs by as much as 30 percent next year 018" The overall funding for the department, however, under Trump's budget would increase by almost seven percent. Congressman Peter King (R-NY) said the cuts would affect security programs for New York's

first responders A first responder is a person with specialized training who is among the first to arrive and provide assistance or incident resolution at the scene of an emergency, such as an accident, disaster, medical emergency, structure fire, crime, or terr ...

, and Congressman Donald Payne (D-NJ) questioned how the cuts would help keep safe the ports of

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and Newark. The president's budget for 2018 would: * Increase the DHS budget for fiscal 2018 by $2.8 billion, to $44.1 billion * Include funding for 500 new border patrol agents * Include funding for 1,000 new Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents * Begin construction of the border wall that Trump promised during his presidential campaign * Cut grants to local and state agencies by $667 million for pre-disaster mitigation and counterterrorism funding In November 2017, in an annual oversight hearing called “World Wide Threats: Keeping America Secure in the New Age of Terror”, leaders of the U.S. government's national security agencies “offered troubling assessments of the growing threats from terrorism, both internationally and domestically.”

Members, 117th Congress

Resolutions electing members: (chair), (Ranking Member), (D), (R), (R)

Subcommittees

Committee chairs

* Christopher Cox (R-CA), 2002-2005 * Pete King (R-NY), 2005-2007 * Bennie Thompson (D-MS), 2007-2011 * Pete King (R-NY), 2011–2013 *

Michael McCaul Michael Thomas McCaul Sr. (born January 14, 1962) is an American attorney and politician serving as the U.S. representative for since 2005. A member of the Republican Party, he chaired the House Committee on Homeland Security during the 113th ...

(R-TX), 2013-2019 * Bennie Thompson (D-MS), 2019-present

Historical membership rosters

115th Congress

Sources: (chair), (Ranking Member), (D) and (R)

116th Congress

Sources: (chair), (Ranking Member), (D), (R), (R), (R), (R) ;Subcommittees

References

External links

Committee on Homeland Security homepageArchive

House Homeland Security Committee
Legislation activity and reports, Congress.gov.
House Homeland Security Committee Hearings and Meetings Video
Congress.gov.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security homepage
* * {{United States congressional committees

Homeland Security Homeland security is an American national security term for "the national effort to ensure a homeland that is safe, secure, and resilient against terrorism and other hazards where American interests, aspirations, and ways of life can thrive" t ...

Disaster preparedness in the United States 2002 establishments in Washington, D.C.