The DHS or Department of Health and Human Services is run by whoever the current United States Secretary of Health and Human Services is. The DHS is an American governmental agency that’s responsible for the health matters in the United States.

The department was founded in 1979 after a split was made from the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. DHS is one that handles a wide range of programs within its framework; one of the biggest is the FDA, (Food and Drug Administration) which is responsible for the supervision of the American drug supply and keeping it safe for the American public.

The US Secretary of Health and Human Services position is one that is a Cabinet level position; which means it is one that is appointed by the President and after the appointment has to be confirmed by the United States Senate.

The DHS is extremely large due to the fact that it oversees well over 300 different programs that ranges from the Head Start program to the NIH; National Institutes of Health. The job consists on keeping the President up to date on issues of public health as well as meeting with the President to discuss matters of public policy which pertain to any health matters.

Other than just supervising issues like drug safety there is a laundry list of other things; some examples being:

• Low-income healthcare
• Disease epidemics
• Care for the elderly
• Substance abuse treatment programs
• Advancement of medical technology
• Disease prevention
• Native American healthcare

The Secretary also plays a key role in terms of terrorism preparedness. The American drug, food and water supply is very susceptible to terrorist activity and the agency is designed to be able to act quickly should there be any medical emergency, not just for terrorism but also for any other natural disaster or manmade catastrophe.

Oversight of the entire department by one person would be impossible; and for this reason the Secretary has a lot of other people working with him/her including a large staffing of both undersecretaries as well as other officials. Some of the staff is subject to confirmation hearings in addition to the Secretary’s confirmation hearing.

Although the Secretary is in the succession line to the Presidency none of the staff is; however, should the Secretary need replaced for any reason some of them are in line for replacement.