Number: RS22840
Title: Organizing for Homeland Security: The Homeland Security Council Reconsidered
Authors: Harold C. Relyea, Government and Finance Division 
Abstract: In the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, President George W. Bush established the Office of Homeland Security and the Homeland Security Council (HSC). In his June 2002 proposal for a Department of Homeland Security, President Bush appeared to anticipate the continued operation of both of these entities. However, the Homeland Security Act of 2002, which mandated the new department, statutorily rechartered the HSC as an agency within the Executive Office of the President (EOP). Thereafter, the HSC disappeared from the public record, and its status today remains uncertain. Recently, some have called for the merger of the HSC with the National Security Council (NSC).
Pages: 6
Date: November 26, 2008