11th Grade U.S. History STAAR Practice Test

The main idea is understanding how the United States reorganized its government after the 9/11 attacks to better prevent and respond to terrorism. The Department of Homeland Security was created by the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to coordinate national counterterrorism efforts by pulling together many border, immigration, transportation, emergency response, and investigative functions under one umbrella. This consolidation makes it the agency specifically tasked with coordinating security across the country, rather than focusing on a single type of work. The CIA operates overseas intelligence, the FBI handles domestic law enforcement and investigations but is not the umbrella for all homeland security functions, and the Department of Defense is the military responsible for national defense, not civilian domestic security.