The government's 15th Cabinet-level agency was formed from the merger of 22 federal agencies with 170,000 employees and followed a drawn-out debate on Capitol Hill. It is the largest reorganization of the federal government since the Defense Department was created in 1947.
Ridge was sworn at the White House as President Bush looked on. Vice President Dick Cheney administered the oath of office.
"This government has a responsibility to confront the threat of terrorism where it is found,'' Bush said in the 10-minute ceremony.
Ridge's position is 18th in the line of succession for the presidency, ranking after the Veterans Affairs Department secretary, Anthony Principi.
Ridge was sworn in two days after he won unanimous Senate approval. Bush said the department's birth ``begins a vital mission in the defense of our country.''
``We're taking the battle to America's enemies,'' the president said. ``We're destructing their networks. We're destroying their camps. We got them on the run. And we're going to keep them on the run.''
Ridge's undersecretary will be Asa Hutchinson, head of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), who received unanimous Senate approval Thursday. For the next five weeks, the department will be in a transitional mode. Many of the agencies being folded into homeland security won't actually fall under its authority until March 1.
The department's headquarters will be at a secure office complex, run by the Navy, in northwest Washington near the vice president's residence at the U.S. Naval Observatory.
Ridge becomes the 15th member of Bush's Cabinet, along with the secretaries of the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Justice, Labor, State, Transportation, Treasury and Veterans Affairs.
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