The secretary of homeland security is the newest permanent member of the president’s Cabinet, overseeing the sprawling agencies and missions of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and an annual budget exceeding US$62.2 billion.
Overall, the department – and the secretary who leads it – is charged with protecting the nation from all hazards. The department must respond to natural disasters, screen millions of aviation passengers a day, protect the president and other senior national leaders, fight domestic and international hackers, protect dams, power plants and other critical systems across the country, ensure border security and enforce immigration laws.
It is a massive bureaucracy with many critical national security functions. For example, devastating wildfires burning in and around Los Angeles in recent weeks have brought to the forefront the department’s role in coordinating disaster response and relief across federal, state and local governments, as well as with the private sector. At the same time, the Secret Service is leading the effort to ensure the security of the presidential inauguration, and cyberattacks continue to target U.S. infrastructure and government agencies.
