On Sept. 20, 2001, Bush announced to Congress the creation of the Office of Homeland Security. Two weeks later, he issued Executive Order 13228, which established OHS in the Executive Office of the President (EOP) and appointed Tom Ridge as director. OHS's mission was to develop and coordinate the implementation of a comprehensive national strategy to secure the United States from terrorist threats or attacks. The order also established the Homeland Security Council, made up of top executive branch officials, to coordinate the homeland security efforts of the executive departments and agencies.
Many members of Congress took issue with the executive order creating OHS. Because it classified Ridge as the assistant to the president for homeland security, Senate approval was not required for his appointment (presidential advisers don't need confirmation). Nor could Congress compel Ridge to testify, because he was not a Cabinet officer. And, because of OHS's location in the EOP, Congress had no oversight of the new office.
The pressure on the Bush administration to make OHS a Cabinet-level department continued unabated during the next few months. Ridge did submit to some informal questioning before Congress on the administration's progress in securing the homeland, but they weren't official hearings. In the meantime, frustration mounted on the Hill, and the House and Senate held a number of hearings on homeland security, prompting lawmakers to take matters into their own hands. In April 2002, at a Senate Governmental Affairs Committee hearing, senatorsLieberman, Specter and Bob Graham (D-Fla.)submitted a bipartisan proposal to create a National Department for Homeland Defense, which would combine the Coast Guard, Border Patrol, Customs, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and three smaller critical infrastructure offices.