HR 1542 Passes in House

This evening the House passed HR 1542, WMD Intelligence and Information Sharing Act of 2013, by a widely bipartisan vote: 388 – 3. The debate only lasted 11 minutes; the results were never in doubt. If this bill reaches the floor in the Senate it will pass there as well.

Congressional Hearings – Week of 7-21-13

There are only three House hearings and one Senate hearing that might be of specific interest to the chemical safety/security and cybersecurity communities. They involve a TSA markup, a rule for two spending bills, a transportation bill and a cybersecurity bill. A WMD bill will also be considered on the floor of the House.

Spending Bills

The House Rules Committee will meet this evening to try again to formulate a rule for the consideration of HR 2610 (FY 2014 DOT spending bill) and HR 2397 (FY 2014 DOD spending bill). The big holdup here is the question of whether or not to have an open rule (which the Republican leadership has made the norm for spending bills) for the DOD bill. There is a great deal of concern about an amendment defunding the NSA over the recent cyber-snooping disclosure about that agency.

Apparently there has been a resolution as to handle the DOD bill because the Majority Leader’s web site reports that HR 2397 will be considered this week.

TSA Markup

The Subcommittee on Transportation Security of the House Homeland Security Committee will be holding a markup hearing on Wednesday. One of the bills to be considered will be HR 1204, the Aviation Security Stakeholder Participation Act of 2013.

Transportation

Friday there will be a field hearing in New York City by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s Panel on 21^st Century Freight Transportation looking at “How Freight Transportation Challenges in Urban Areas Impact the Nation”. There is no witness list yet available so it is hard to tell what might be discussed. Always a possibility is the issue of the risk of hazmat trains transiting urban areas.

Cybersecurity

The Senate Commerce Committee will be holding a hearing on Thursday looking at “The Partnership Between NIST and the Private Sector: Improving Cybersecurity”. This should be another feel good hearing about the Cybersecurity Framework being developed by NIST under the President’s Cybersecurity EO (EO 13636). No witness list is yet available, but we can expect to see the NIST Director.

WMD Intelligence

There will also be a House floor vote on HR 1542, the WMD Intelligence and Information Sharing Act of 2013. This bill will be considered under suspension of rules so there will be no floor amendments allowed. There was no committee markup of this bill so there was no chance to add the industrial chemical amendment that I suggested. This bill will pass in a bipartisan vote later today.

HR 1542 Introduced – WMD Intelligence

As I mentioned last week, Rep. Meehan (R,PA) introduced HR 1542, the WMD Intelligence and Information Sharing Act of 2013. This bill would amend the Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection subchapter of 6 USC by adding §124n (§210G; see note below) which would add specific weapons of mass destruction intelligence and information sharing requirements. This bill is virtually identical to HR 2764 that was passed in the House in the last session.

NOTE: The bill uses the standard convention of amending the Homeland Security Act of 2002 and bases its section numbering scheme on that document. I have converted these to references to 6 USC as that is easier to find and link to.

General CBRN Focus

This bill would provide for a general focus on CBRN intelligence by requiring the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis (OIA) to “support homeland security-focused intelligence analysis of terrorist actors, their claims, and their plans to conduct attacks involving chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear [CBRN] materials against the Nation” {§124n(a)(1)} and to “leverage existing and emerging homeland security intelligence capabilities and structures to enhance prevention, protection, response, and recovery efforts with respect to a chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear attack” {§124n(a)(4)}.

The information sharing requirement for this intelligence only requires OIA to “share information and provide tailored analytical support on these threats to State, local, and tribal authorities” {§124n(a)(4)}. There is no specific requirement to address sharing of this intelligence information with potentially affected private sector entities.

Increased Biosecurity Focus

There is also a more tightly focused concern on biological weapons. While biological attacks are clearly included in the general focus of legislation, the bill goes on to specifically require “homeland security-focused intelligence analysis of global infectious disease, public health, food, agricultural, and veterinary issues” {§124n(a)(2)}. This is clearly intended to provide the Department with potential early warning of a bio-based attack.

Continues to Ignore Industrial Chemical Attack

As with every WMD related bill that I have seen to date, this bill continues to ignore the fact that the easiest WMD attack to execute against this country would be an attack on the storage or transportation of toxic, flammable or explosive industrial chemicals. While there are security programs in place to address the security side of the infrastructure protection equation, there is no one that is specifically tasked with providing the intelligence development and dissemination that those programs need to be most effective.

I would like to see an additional sub-paragraph added to §124n(a) that would read:

“(x) support homeland security-focused intelligence analysis of risks associated with potential attacks on dangerous industrial chemical manufacture, storage, distribution and transportation; with particular emphasis on the potential attempts to steal or divert industrial chemicals that could be used in the manufacture of improvised explosives or chemical weapons;”

Moving Forward

This bill will probably see quick action within the House Homeland Security Committee, particularly since Meehan is the Chair of the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection and Security Technologies. When the bill makes it to the floor of the House it will almost certainly pass with significant bipartisan support. If it makes it to the floor in the Senate it will also be very likely to pass.

Bills Introduced – 04-12-13

Yesterday with only the House in session, there were three bills introduced that might be of interest to the chemical security community; two port security bills and another WMD bill. Those bills were:

HR 1534 Latest Title: To amend section 70107 of title 46, United States Code, to authorize appropriations for the port security grant program through 2017. Sponsor: Rep Hahn, Janice (D,CA)

HR 1535 Latest Title: To direct the Secretary of Homeland Security to conduct a study and report to Congress on gaps in port security in the United States and a plan to address them.  Sponsor: Rep Hahn, Janice (D,CA)

HR 1542 Latest Title: To amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to establish weapons of mass destruction intelligence and information sharing functions of the Office of Intelligence and Analysis of the Department of Homeland Security and to require dissemination of information analyzed by the Department to entities with responsibilities relating to homeland security, and for other purposes. Sponsor: Rep Meehan, Patrick (R,PA)

I suspect that HR 1542 will be similar to HR 2764 that was passed in the House last year, but was never taken up by the Senate. Similarly HR 1534 will be similar to HR 4005 that suffered a similar fate. Both bills passed with bipartisan support and probably would have passed in the Senate if the leadership had been interested in bringing them to the floor for a vote.