This question has dogged U.S. public policy debates for more than a decade. There is no statutory definition of homeland security that reflects the breadth of the enterprise as currently understood. Although there is a federal Department of Homeland Security, it is neither solely dedicated to homeland security missions, nor is it the only part of the federal government with significant responsibilities in this arena. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was established by the Homeland Security Act of 2002 ( P.L. 107-296 ), which was signed into law on November 25, 2002. The new department was assembled from components pulled from 22 different government agencies and began official operations on March 1, 2003. Since then, DHS has undergone a series of restructurings and reorganizations to improve its effectiveness and efficiency. Although DHS does include many of the homeland security functions of the federal government, several of these functions or parts of these functions remain at their original executive branch agencies and departments, including the Departments of Justice, State, Defense, and Transportation. Not all of the missions of DHS are officially "homeland security" missions. Some components have historical missions that do not directly relate to conventional homeland security definitions, such as the Coast Guard's environmental and boater safety missions, and Congress has in the past debated whether FEMA and its disaster relief and recovery missions belong in the department. Some aspects of crime and justice could arguably be included in a broad definition of homeland security. Issues such as the role of the military in law enforcement, monitoring and policing transfers of money, human trafficking, explosives and weapons laws, and aspects of foreign policy, trade, and economics have implications for homeland security policy. Rather than trying to resolve the question of what is and is not homeland security, this report is limited to topics that generally fall within the four mission study areas used to develop the Quadrennial Homeland Security Review mandated by the Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007 ( P.L. 110-53 ): Counterterrorism and Security Management, Border Security and Trade, Immigration, and Disaster Preparedness, Response, and Recovery. A fifth section covering management issues at DHS rounds out the discussion. As each topic is introduced, the lead expert and author of the section is listed, along with their contact information. In many cases, a specific CRS report is highlighted as a source of more detailed information. The issues included in this report do not represent a comprehensive list of possible issues—they represent a broad array of issues likely to be addressed by Congress in the coming months. [author name scrubbed], Analyst in Emergency Management and Homeland Security Policy ( [email address scrubbed] , [phone number scrubbed]) For more information, see CRS Report R42462, Defining Homeland Security: Analysis and Congressional Considerations . Twelve years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, policy makers continue to debate the definition of homeland security. Prior to 9/11, the United States addressed crises through the separate prisms of national defense, law enforcement, and emergency management. 9/11 prompted a strategic process that included a discussion about and the development of homeland security policy. Today, this debate and development has resulted in numerous federal entities with homeland security responsibilities. Presently, there are over 30 federal departments, agencies, and entities that have homeland security responsibilities and receive annual appropriations to execute homeland security missions. Congress is responsible for appropriating funds for homeland security missions and priorities. These priorities need to exist and to be clear in order for funding to be most effective. Presently, homeland security is not funded based on clearly defined strategic priorities. In an ideal scenario, there would be a consensus definition of homeland security, as well as prioritized missions, goals, and activities. Policy makers could then use a process based on these defined priorities to incorporate feedback and strategically respond to new facts and situations as they develop. The debate over and development of homeland security definitions and priorities persists as the federal government continues to issue and implement homeland security strategies. The first homeland security strategy document issued by President George W. Bush's Administration was the 2003 National Strategy for Homeland Security , which was revised in 2007. In 2008, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued the Strategic Plan— One Team, One Mission, Securing Our Homeland . The 2007 National Strategy for Homeland Security primarily focused on terrorism, whereas the 2008 Strategic Plan included references to all-hazards and border security. Arguably, the 2003 and 2007 National Strategies for Homeland Security addressed terrorism due to such incidents as the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the attempted bombing of American Airlines Flight 93 on December 22, 2001, whereas the 2008 Strategic Plan addressed terrorism and all-hazards due to natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina, which occurred in 2005. These documents have been superseded by several other documents which are now considered the principal homeland security strategies. The White House and DHS are the principle source of homeland security strategies. The current primary national homeland security strategic document is the 2010 National Security Strategy , which unlike the 2007 National Strategy for Homeland Security addresses all hazards and is not primarily terrorism focused. DHS's strategic documents are the 2010 Quadrennial Homeland Security Review ; the 2010 Bottom-Up Review ; and the 2012 Strategic Plan . DHS states that these documents are nested in the 2010 National Security Strategy and DHS is currently developing the 2014 Quadrennial Homeland Security Review . At the national level, the 2010 National Security Strategy guides not just DHS's activities, but also all federal government homeland security activities. The development of national homeland security strategy will continue as the Obama Administration and DHS develop and implement such strategies as the 2014 Quadrennial Homeland Security Review and a potentially new National Security Strategy that the Obama Administration may issue sometime in the next four years. It has been argued that homeland security, at its core, is about coordination because of the disparate stakeholders and risks. Many observers assert that homeland security is not only about coordination of resources and actions to counter risks; it is also about the coordination of the strategic process policy makers use in determining the risks, the stakeholders and their missions, and the prioritization of those missions. Without a general consensus on the literal and philosophical definition of homeland security, achieved through a strategic process, some believe that there will continue to be the potential for disjointed and disparate approaches to securing the nation. From this perspective, general consensus on the homeland security concept necessarily starts with a consensus definition and an accepted list of prioritized missions that are constantly reevaluated to meet risks of the homeland security paradigm of the 21 st century. The varied homeland security definitions and concepts represented in the current national and homeland security strategy documents, however, may be the result of a strategic process that has attempted to, in an ad hoc manner, adjust federal homeland security policy to emerging threats and risks. [author name scrubbed], Analyst in Emergency Management and Homeland Security Policy ( [email address scrubbed] , [phone number scrubbed]) For more information, see CRS Report R43147, Department of Homeland Security: FY2014 Appropriations . According to data from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the entire U.S. government spent $564 billion (in nominal dollars) on "homeland security"—defined in law as "those activities that detect, deter, protect against, and respond to terrorist attacks occurring within the United States and its territories" —in the 10 years after the 9/11 attacks. Such spending peaked in FY2009 at $73.8 billion. The total budget request for homeland security activities for FY2014 was $72.7 billion, a reduction of $1.1 billion from its high-water mark in nominal terms. By comparison, the budget for the Department of Homeland Security has grown from $31.2 billion in FY2003, when it did not have its own appropriations bill, to $59.9 billion in FY2012, the last year for which we have complete budget data. Roughly $35.1 billion, or 58.6%, is considered "homeland security" spending by OMB's accounting under the above definition. Some argue that the definition in law is too focused on explicit and directly attributable counterterrorism activities compared to broader theories that have been part of the national discussion, which consider immigration and border control or disaster response as a part of homeland security. In 2010, neither the House nor the Senate completed work on its version of a FY2011 appropriations bill for the Department of Homeland Security. For the first time, the department, like the rest of the federal government that year, was funded through a long-term continuing resolution. This resolution established funding levels for some components and activities, while leaving others to be funded at FY2010 levels. The resolution overall gave the department much less explicit direction from Congress than previous funding vehicles, in several cases leaving decisions usually made by Congress about how to allocate limited funds in DHS's hands. This stood in contrast to previous years, when at least one body passed an appropriations bill funding the department, and legislation providing specific appropriations was either passed on a stand-alone basis or as part of legislation including multiple bills. Just as importantly, in those years, either a conference report or explanatory statement of the managers provided further direction to the department on allocation of appropriated funds, oversight requirements, and other expressions of congressional intent. For both FY2012 and FY2013, DHS was funded through consolidated appropriations legislation, which carried traditional levels of specific congressional direction for the department. The actual level of budgetary resources available for the FY2013 budget year, however, was impacted by the across-the-board cuts—known as sequestration—mandated by the Budget Control and Deficit Reduction Act of 2011 (BCA).