§6922 Office of Homeland Security

Summary

Creates an Office of Homeland Security inside the Department and requires the Secretary to put an Executive Director in charge. "Agriculture and food defense" means actions to stop, protect against, respond to, or recover from natural, accidental, or intentional threats to the food and farming system. The Executive Director must be the Department’s main adviser on homeland security and food/agriculture risks. They must organize the Department’s policies, budgets, and oversight for those matters, act as the main contact with other federal agencies, and share and help explain threat information with the intelligence community, law enforcement, the Secretaries of Defense, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services, and state fusion centers. The Director must also work with the Director of National Intelligence on intelligence products, run exercises to fix preparedness gaps, create a Department-wide strategy for homeland security, and perform other duties the Secretary assigns. The Secretary must set up a partnership program with the intelligence community and state fusion centers to exchange staff and information to improve analysis and communication about food and agriculture threats. The Secretary may make agreements or contracts with federal, state, or local authorities with relevant intelligence or analysis skills and use other legal authorities as needed to involve them.