HR 1589 Reported in Senate – CBRN Intelligence

Last week the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee published their report on HR 1589, CBRN Intelligence and Information Sharing Act of 2019, as well as an amended version of the bill that was adopted in a markup hearing last November.

In light of the recent and ongoing problems with responses to the potential CODIV-19 epidemic in this country it is interesting to note that one of the changes made by the Senate panel. The re-write of §2(c) would require DHS to report to Congress on the information sharing activities of “all relevant entities within the Department of Homeland Security to counter the threat from global infectious disease [emphasis added] and attacks using chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear materials, devices, or agents”.