Department of Homeland Security Is Web of Federal Agencies
HOLMES: Well, President Obama promising to do all it takes to make sure information is shared among the many agencies aimed at keeping the country safe.</s>NGUYEN: Yes, well, part of that means Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano tackling a massive web of agencies, all with different roles. Our Josh Levs is here to show us just how all of that works. Hey, Josh.</s>LEVS: Hey, guys. This is something we keep hearing from lawmakers, right? They complain that the DHS is too huge.</s>NGUYEN: Not sharing information.</s>LEVS: Exactly.</s>NGUYEN: And this and that, yes.</s>LEVS: That they're not sharing enough information, that it's all too huge. Take a look at this chart. I want you to see this thing first. Let's go straight to it, because I want you guys to get a sense of how massive it is. Ignore the words. Everything you're seeing on your screen is a different agency, all of it part of DHS. It's huge. In fact, I have it on the screen behind me here. Take a look at something; I want you to see this for a second. Again, don't -- you don't need to know the words. This up here is the Office of the Secretary of -- of DHS. Everything all over here is a different agency. And the way it works is not that this layer reports to this layer, which reports to this layer, on up, which would usually be the case. Instead, every single thing here reports directly to the Office of the Secretary. So what's happening here is you have this massive web of agencies, and that Office of the DHS, the secretary of the DHS, hears directly from all these agencies. Now, check out these numbers, because I want everyone to have a sense of what this thing is. We're going to go straight to these graphics. First of all, the number of employees, 87,000. Federal, state and local jurisdictions are involved in the DHS. And it all -- it totals more than 230,000 employees. And just reporting to the secretary alone, you got more than two dozen officials that she hears from directly about their various agencies. Let's take a look at a handful of what goes into the DHS there. You got the TSA; Customs and Borden Protection; Citizenship and Immigration Services; Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is different from the other one. You also got the Secret Service, FEMA and the Coast Guard. That's just a handful of what gets packed into the DHS. So when we hear people say, there's this massive web of agencies, it's important to understand how it works. All those different agencies are tossing their own information at the Office of the Secretary. And it's up to that little office right here to take everything that's coming in from this big web, find ways to put it together in such a way, Betty and T.J.., that will ultimately do what it takes to keep us safe. So folks, when you hear about this and the concerns people have about security, that's the -- that's the sense that we're dealing with. And that is the web, right here for you, all of DHS.gov, guys.</s>NGUYEN: All right. Well, Josh, you know, some of these key government agencies are not part of</s>DHS. LEVS: Right.</s>NGUYEN: That sounds a little surprising.</s>LEVS: Yes. In fact, I'm glad you said that, because a lot of people think of everything that's homeland security as being part of the Department of Homeland Security. But you know what's not? The CIA, the FBI. So the major intelligence agencies, in that respect, are not part of DHS. So not only to keep us safe does the DHS need to pull everything together right here, they also need to cooperate with the CIA and the FBI and all these other government agencies. That's why when we hear President Obama say it's a big task ahead to make sure everything gets shared, you can see right here how incredibly huge it is. You got all this, plus the other agencies. Good luck with that. But ultimately, that's the goal.</s>NGUYEN: All right. And you say, 'Good luck with that.'</s>LEVS: Well, we all got to do it, right? It's critical.</s>NGUYEN: Thank you, Josh.</s>LEVS: Thanks, guys.</s>NGUYEN: OK, so imagine this: living without heat or power for a year, especially during winter weather like what we've been having lately.</s>HOLMES: Yes, a lot of people can't imagine doing that. But some people are, a lot of families. We're going to introduce you to one family living on $1,200 a month, and they are squeezing every bit out of every paycheck.