Which senators and representatives voted for and against the Homeland Security Act of 2002 on the final roll calls?
Executive summary
The Homeland Security Act of 2002 (H.R. 5005) cleared Congress on final roll calls in the summer and autumn of 2002; the Senate’s final passage recorded a 90–9 vote (one senator not voting) and the House’s final recorded roll is Vote #367 (the House vote on July 26, 2002) — full, named roll-call lists are published on the official roll-call pages and GovTrack [1] [2] [3]. The bill created the Department of Homeland Security and was enrolled as Public Law 107–296 when signed in November 2002 [4] [5].
1. Final Senate tally and where to read who voted which way
The Senate’s final passage of H.R. 5005 is documented as Senate Vote #249 and is recorded on the Senate roll-call archive and mirrored by GovTrack; the numerical result reported across summaries is 90 yeas, 9 nays, and one not voting [6] [3] [1]. For anyone seeking the exact names of the 90 senators who voted yea and the 9 who voted nay, the official Senate roll-call transcript on the Senate website contains the full, line-by-line list and is the primary source of record [3] [6].
2. Final House tally and where to read who voted which way
The House’s final recorded action on what became the Homeland Security Act appears as House Vote #367 on July 26, 2002; GovTrack preserves that roll-call entry and the House Clerk’s records and the Congressional Record carry the full names and vote positions for each representative who participated [2] [7]. The public summaries and legislative histories note the House engaged in multiple procedural steps and companion bills during 2002 as the chamber reconciled different versions, and the Congressional Record offers debate context along with the final roll-call listing [7] [2].
3. Why these roll-call pages matter (and how reporting can compress them into headlines)
Media accounts commonly report the aggregate counts and the law’s significance — that it established DHS, reorganized many agencies, and became Public Law 107–296 — but the roll-call pages are the authoritative source for the specific names, because aggregate tallies omit the political and regional detail that often explains dissent or support [4] [5] [1]. Scholarly and advocacy summaries reference the law’s substance — the transfer of agencies into a cabinet department, new positions like the Secretary of Homeland Security, and statutory titles such as science, transportation, and information security — but they do not replace the roll-call record for answering “which senator or representative voted for or against” [8] [4] [9].
4. Balance, limitations, and how to get the exact lists now
This review points readers directly to the primary roll-call sources because the materials provided here (Wikipedia and summary pages) report the aggregate Senate margin and identify the House and Senate roll-call numbers but do not reproduce full name-by-name lists in the supplied snippets; therefore, the precise lists of senators and representatives on each side should be read from the official Senate roll-call page (Senate Vote #249) and the House roll-call record/GovTrack House Vote #367 for the final House passage [1] [3] [2]. Those pages are the contemporaneous, authoritative records; secondary histories and department summaries (DHS, Congressional Record, GovTrack, and the enrolled law) supply legislative context and the statute text but rely on the same roll-call records for the vote details [4] [7] [6] [5].