Homeland Security Act of 2002 (PL 107-296)
statuteDarknet & Cyber
The biggest reshuffle of the American government since 1947 - and the clause that mattered most got almost no attention.
Who they are
The Homeland Security Act of 2002, signed 25 November 2002[1].[2]
What they do
The engine's interest is not the new department but one subtitle buried inside the Act.
How it works
It was cosponsored by 118 members of Congress and created the Department of Homeland Security, the largest federal reorganisation since the Defense Department itself was created in 1947. Inside it, Subtitle B created a new secrecy rule for information companies give the government about their own infrastructure.
Why it matters
That clause is the lasting change, and it is in its own entry. The Justice Department's own account notes Congress moved 'quickly to ensure enactment, with relatively little focus on its FOIA-related provisions'.
The engine's record — word for word
Public Law 107-296, approved November 25, 2002, 116 Stat. 2135. "The HSA was cosponsored by 118 members of Congress" and "imposed the largest federal government reorganization since the Department of Defense was created via the National Security Act of 1947", establishing the Department of Homeland Security and the cabinet-level Secretary of Homeland Security. The engine's interest is not the reorganisation headline but Subtitle B, which created a new FOIA Exemption 3 statute for critical infrastructure information — see cii_foia_exemption_3. NOT HELD: the figure of '22 disparate federal agencies', which returns zero hits in the cited source.
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