To mark the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, two former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretaries, Michael Chertoff and Jeh Johnson, have publicly called for the establishment of a new public safety agency. In a joint interview with NBC News, the two former officials discussed the current state of national security and the future direction of the department they once led.

While the specific mandate and structure of this proposed agency remain to be fully detailed, the call from Chertoff and Johnson highlights a growing conversation among security experts regarding the adequacy of current federal structures in the face of modern threats. The DHS was created in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks to consolidate various federal agencies under one umbrella to better protect the nation. Chertoff, who served under President George W. Bush, and Johnson, who served under President Barack Obama, suggest that the current landscape requires a shift in how the government manages public safety responsibilities.

The proposal comes at a time when the DHS faces ongoing scrutiny regarding its mission, which has expanded significantly since its founding. The former secretaries did not provide a comprehensive blueprint for how this new agency would interact with existing DHS components, nor did they specify how it would be funded or authorized by Congress. The discussion serves as a reflection on the evolution of American security policy over the last 25 years and suggests that these former leaders believe the current framework is no longer sufficient to meet the challenges of the coming decades.