A look at government reforms as a result of Sept. 11

The 16 spy agencies were put under the authority of one national intelligence chief, former U.S. ambassador to Baghdad John Negroponte. A National Counterterrorism Center was created to bring together employees from the FBI, CIA, the Defense Department and elsewhere to merge all threat information in a single location. The center has several hundred employees, among the roughly 100,000 who work in intelligence. Additionally, the CIA plans to increase by 2010 the number of operatives and analysts each by 50 percent, with an emphasis on "hard-target" languages such as Farsi, Urdu, Pashto and Korean. In the last two years, the agency has opened or reopened outposts in roughly two dozen countries.

PENTAGON

The U.S. Northern Command, created in 2002, oversees domestic military efforts and coordinates help to civilian authorities. Combat air patrols over major cities, with the power to shoot down attacking aircraft, were started immediately after 9/11. Also, the Navy has new authority to intercept boats carrying terrorists or weapons, while Quick Reaction Forces and Rapid Reaction Forces of highly trained soldiers and Marines were readied to respond to potential threats on land. The Air Force developed the controversial TALON database to collect information about possible terrorist threats.

HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

More than $1 billion was distributed to local and state health departments and hospitals to prepare for a biological weapons attack. Health departments bought new lab equipment, communications systems and beefed up staffing, while hospitals prepared for treating mass casualties with drills, by training staff to treat smallpox and anthrax, and purchasing decontamination kits and medicine. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention developed a health alert network to allow scientists to issue emergency bulletins to health departments around the nation. Also, $645 million was set aside to buy medicine, masks, ventilators and other supplies for the National Strategic Stockpile.