Jeh Johnson is the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.  As such, he leads the third largest Department of the U.S. government, with a workforce of 229,000 employees and 22 components including TSA, Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, FEMA, the Coast Guard and the Secret Service.  Under Secretary Johnson’s leadership, DHS is responsible for counterterrorism, cybersecurity, aviation security, border security, port security, maritime security, administration and enforcement of our immigration laws, protection of our national leaders, protection of critical infrastructure, detection of and protection against chemical, biological and nuclear threats to the homeland, and response to disasters.

Secretary Johnson was appointed by President Obama on December 23, 2013, following confirmation by the U.S. Senate by a vote of 78-16.  Previously, Secretary Johnson was appointed by President Obama to be General Counsel of the Department of Defense from 2009 through 2012.  In that position, Johnson was one of the legal architects for the U.S. military’s counterterrorism mission during President Obama’s first term , and he gave several notable public addresses on the subject, including at the Oxford Union in November 2012.  In 2010, Johnson also co-authored a 250-page report that paved the way for the repeal by Congress of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell law that prohibited gays from serving openly in the U.S. military.  From October 1998 to January 2001, Johnson served in the Clinton Administration as General Counsel of the Department of the Air Force.   From 1989 through 1991, Secretary Johnson was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York, where he prosecuted public corruption cases. 

Secretary Johnson is a native New Yorker, and in private life has been a corporate lawyer with the New York City-based law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.  He was present in Manhattan on September 11, 2001, which also happens to be his birthday.

Secretary Johnson is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers.  He is a 1979 graduate of Morehouse College, a 1982 graduate of Columbia Law School, and the recipient of nine honorary degrees.

Commanding General, United States Army North/Fifth United States Army

Lieutenant General Jeff Buchanan assumed command of United States Army North (Fifth Army) on 26 August 2016.

He was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the Infantry in May 1982 after graduating from the University of Arizona with a Bachelor of Science in Wildlife Ecology. He also holds a Master of Arts in Leadership Development from the United States Military Academy. Lieutenant General Buchanan’s military education includes the Infantry Officer Basic and Advanced Courses at Fort Benning, GA; the United States Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, KS; and a Senior Service College Fellowship in Geneva, Switzerland.

Lieutenant General Buchanan’s duty assignments include command and staff positions within the 82nd Airborne Division, 25th Infantry Division, 101st Airborne Division, and 10th Mountain Division. He also served as a Company and Battalion Tactical Officer at the U.S. Military Academy, the Director for Operations (J3) of Joint Task Force Full Accounting, and the Senior Light Infantry Task Force Trainer at the National Training Center.

Lieutenant General Buchanan served four tours in Iraq and one tour in Afghanistan. In 2003-2004 he was the Director of Operations (C3), Coalition Military Assistance Training Team. Between 2004 and 2006, he commanded the 2nd Brigade, 75th Division (TSB) and deployed a second time to Iraq to serve as an advisor to the Iraqi Special Police Commando Division. Upon his return, he served as the Director of Operations for U.S. Army North (Fifth Army) at Fort Sam Houston, TX until November of 2007. From 2007 through 2009, he served as Deputy Commanding General for the 10th Mountain Division including a deployment to Iraq as the Multi-National Division-South. Following an assignment as the G-3/5/7 for the United States Army Reserve Command, he returned to Iraq for his fourth tour there as the Director of Strategic Effects (J9), U.S. Forces Iraq, from July 2010 to December 2011.

Lieutenant General Buchanan served as the Deputy Commanding General, I Corps from 2012-2013, and then commanded the US Army Military District of Washington/Joint Force Headquarters-National Capitol Region from 2013-2015. He most recently served as the Resolute Support DCOS-Operations/Deputy Commander (Operations) for US Forces-Afghanistan in 2015-2016.

He and his wife Laura have three adult children (all three are married) and three grandchildren.