Michael McCaul (TX), Chairman

Congressman Michael T. McCaul is serving in his fifth term representing Texas' 10th District in the United States Congress and in January 2013 he became Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security.  As Chairman his top priorities are to address the al Qaeda-Hezbollah terrorist threat, border security, cyber security and fixing the Department of Homeland Security to ensure it is capable of carrying out its core mission of protecting the homeland.  In addition, Chairman McCaul will work to make the nation’s airport security system smarter and more efficient.

During the 112th Congress, McCaul served as Chairman of the Oversight, Investigations and Management Subcommittee, which has oversight of all Department of Homeland Security operations. 

Hailing from a border state, Chairman McCaul has been a leader in border security since he entered Congress in 2005.  In November 2012, McCaul authored the second edition of his report “A Line in the Sand: Confronting Crime, Violence and Terror at the Southwest Border”, which revealed the increased presence of Iran and Hezbollah in Latin America and their relationships with drug cartels that control smuggling routes into the United States.

Congressman McCaul has helped to secure three Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for Texas to provide law enforcement better border surveillance.  He has taken the lead in identifying existing Department of Defense technologies that have proven successful in Iraq and Afghanistan, for use along the Southwest border without duplicating research and development, ultimately saving taxpayers money and making the equipment operational more quickly.

Congressman McCaul is a leader on cyber security policy.  He co-chaired the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ (CSIS) Commission on Cybersecurity for the 44th President, which presented cyber security recommendations to President Obama’s administration upon taking office in 2009.  In 2012 McCaul authored the Cyber Security Enhancement Act, which passed the House, and would help harden federal networks, improve coordination inside and outside of government, improve research and development as well as the quality of our cyber workforce.  With a high concentration of high tech companies in his district, McCaul has cultivated a relationship with the high tech community from Austin to Washington to Silicon Valley and has worked to include industry in shaping cyber security policy in order to promote information sharing and protect critical infrastructure.

Prior to Congress, Michael McCaul served as Chief of Counter-Terrorism and National Security in the U.S. Attorney’s office, Western District of Texas, and led the Joint Terrorism Task Force.  He served as Texas Deputy Attorney General under current U.S. Senator John Cornyn, and served as a federal prosecutor in the Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Section in Washington, D.C.

McCaul earned a B.A. in Business and History from Trinity University and holds a J.D. from St. Mary's University School of Law. He is a graduate of the Senior Executive Fellows Program of the School of Government, Harvard University.

For more information, visit Congressman McCaul’s website.