HR 397 Introduced – CBRN Intelligence

Last month Rep Gimenez (R,FL) introduced HR 397, the CBRN Intelligence and Information Sharing Act of 2021. The bill would establish DHS responsibilities for collecting and disseminating intelligence information involving terrorist threats “involving chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear materials against the United States” {new §210F(a)(1)}.

This bill is very similar to HR 1589 that was introduced by Rep Walker (R,NC) who retired last year. The earlier version was amended in Committee, passed in the House and then amended again in Committee in the Senate. No floor action was taken in the Senate. The language in this version is very nearly identical to that reported in the House last session.

Moving Forward

Both Gimenez and his cosponsor {Rep Katko (R,NY)} are members of the House Homeland Security Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration. Gimenez is a Freshman member of the House, but Katko is the Ranking Member so there is sufficient influence here to see the bill considered in Committee. As in the past, the bill would likely receive strong bipartisan support within the Committee and on the floor of the House.

Commentary

As I have said with previous versions of the bill this bill is ostensibly about chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear terrorist attacks, but the reporting emphasis is on biological attacks. The changes made in the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee last session did much to equalize that focus. I would recommend that the House Homeland Security Community take a look at those changes when they meet to markup the bill this session.

For the chemical threat information sharing portion of this program, I would like to suggest that the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program would receive special mention within the bill. Additionally, the CFATS program should additionally be required to establish a formal mechanism for sharing such intelligence information with facilities covered under the CFATS program. To that end I would like to propose the following language be added to §210F(a)(5):

(a) The term ‘other Federal agencies’ mentioned above will include at a minimum:

(i) Transportation Security Administration

(ii) Coast Guard, and

(iii) The agency responsible for the administration of the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS).

(b) The CFATS program will establish processes for distributing chemical threat information to the appropriate facilities covered under the program.