Reader Comment – CVI and DOGE

Last night Carbon Unit left a comment on my Substack Notes announcement about my recent “Chemical Security Inspector Reduction in Force” post on Substack. The comment objected to the characterization of the DOGE access to Chemical Terrorism Vulnerability Information (CVI), noting that:

“The USDS team has been vetted and has already covered far more sensitive data than this.”

As I noted in my reply to that comment, CVI information in possession by CISA includes security plans for the 3,000+ chemical facilities that were covered by the CFATS program at the time of the program’s termination in July 2023. That is some of the most sensitive information not covered by national security classified information program in the possession of the government. In fact, according to 6 USC 623(d):

 

“In any proceeding to enforce this section, vulnerability assessments, site security plans, and other information submitted to or obtained by the Secretary under this subchapter, and related vulnerability or security information, shall be treated as if the information were classified information.”

 

Additionally, the chemical inventory data on the 300 most sensitive chemicals (from a weaponization point of view) submitted under the CFATS’ Top Screen program on over 45,000 facilities is also held on those same CVI servers.

 

While the DOGE team members may have been vetted (I am not sure what vetting process has been used, but from public reporting it does not meet the access requirements outlined for CVI access, because of the training requirements) that does not mean that they have the ‘need to know’ the facility chemical security information held by CISA.

 

CISA and the employees working in and around the CFATS program took the CVI program very seriously. Unauthorized access, and certainly unneeded access, to that information would be expected to offend the sensibilities of those employees. More importantly, it would strike fear in the facilities that provided that information to CISA in the understanding that the information would be closely held and protected by CISA.

CRS Reports – Week of 2-1-25 – DOGE

This week the Congressional Research Service (CRS) published a report on “Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Executive Order: Early Implementation”. It provides a well anotated brief background of the history of the US Digital Service (USDS) formed under President Obama that President Trump has used as the legal framework for the operations of the DOGE. It discusses the three Executive Orders that direct how DOGE will operate and what the organizational objectives are.

There is not a great deal of information on the first two weeks of operation of DOGE, but it does provide a series of questions that Congress would probably want answered about the new agency.

A brief reminder, the CRS serves as a research agency designed to provide background information to members of Congress and their staffs to better inform congressional legislative and oversight efforts.