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.

Bills Introduced – 1-21-21

Yesterday, with both the House and Senate in session, there were 81 bills introduced. Of those, one bill will receive additional coverage in this blog:

HR 397 To amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to establish chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear 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. Rep. Gimenez, Carlos A. [R-FL-26]

While Gimenez is a first term Representative, this bill sounds very much like HR 1589 from last session. That bill was introduced by Rep. Walker (R,NC) who is no longer in Congress. That bill was passed in the House in 2019 and amended/adopted by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, but it was never taken up by the full Senate.

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”.

Senate Committee Amends and Adopts HR 1589 – CBRN Intelligence

Yesterday the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee held a business meeting where they considered HR 1589, the CBRN Intelligence and Information Sharing Act of 2019. The Committee adopted substitute language and ordered the bill reported favorably by a voice vote.

The Revisions

For the most part the substitute language adopted by the Committee was a technical re-wording of the House bill with little or no change in intent. For example, see the differences below in the wording of the proposed §210F(a):

HOUSE - ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.— The Office of Intelligence and Analysis of the Department of Homeland Security shall—”

SENATE - ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary, acting through the Undersecretary for Intelligence and Analysis, and working with the intelligence components of the Department, shall—”

In this case (and in most of the bill) the two versions really mean the same thing; they just reflect a different editorial style. There are a couple of places that substantive changes have been made in the bill. For example, the House version of §210F(a)(5) reads:

‘‘(5) share information and provide tailored analytical support on such threats to State, local, Tribal, and territorial authorities, and other Federal agencies, as well as relevant national biosecurity and biodefense stakeholders, as appropriate; and”

The Senate version of the same paragraph deletes the phrase: “, as well as relevant national biosecurity and biodefense stakeholders”.

The other significant change is found in the complete re-write of §210F(b). The House version reads:

‘‘(b) COORDINATION.—Where appropriate, the Office of Intelligence and Analysis shall coordinate with other relevant Department components, including the Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office and the National Biosurveillance Integration Center, agencies within the intelligence community, including the National Counter Proliferation Center, and other Federal, State, local, Tribal, and territorial authorities, including officials from high-threat urban areas, State and major urban area fusion centers, and local public health departments, as appropriate, and enable such entities to provide recommendations on optimal information sharing mechanisms, including expeditious sharing of classified information, and on how such entities can provide information to the Department.”

The Senate version changes this subsection to read:

‘‘(b) COORDINATION.—Where appropriate, the Undersecretary for Intelligence and Analysis shall—

‘‘(1) coordinate with—

‘‘(A) other Departmental components, including the Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the Science and Technology Directorate; and

‘‘(B) other Federal, State, local, and Tribal entities, including officials from high-threat urban areas, State and major urban area fusion centers, and local public health departments; and

‘‘(2) enable such components and entities to provide recommendations on—

‘‘(A) optimal information sharing mechanisms, including expeditious sharing of classified information; and

‘‘(B) how such components and entities can provide information to the Undersecretary and other components of the Department.”

Moving Forward

As soon as the Committee publishes their report on this bill, it could be considered by the full Senate. The bill was adopted as part of an en bloc consideration of a large number of bills. The voice vote heard for that en bloc vote in the video of the hearing did not include any ‘No’ votes. Given this bipartisan support I would suspect that the bill would be considered under the Senate’s unanimous consent process. I doubt that it could make it to the floor under regular order; there is just too much going on for the Senate to take up debate and procedural time on this bill.

I suspect that the House could accept the changes proposed by the Committee if the leadership allowed the language to come to an open vote.

Commentary

I think that the two substantive changes that I described above have made a major change in the focus of this bill. I have maintained that the House wording, with its specific references to biosecurity and biodefense, made this bill a biosecurity bill and not a chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear security bill. The changes made by the Committee return this to a more balanced look at all four of these threats.

Committee Hearings – Week of 11-3-19

This week just the Senate will be in session; the House is working (campaigning? Or just explaining impeachment?) in their districts. There are two cybersecurity related hearings scheduled; one a markup and one a DOE look at legislation.

Markup Hearing

On Wednesday the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will be holding a business meeting that includes marking up 16 bills (plus 11 postal naming bills and four nominations). Only one of those bills is of interest here:

• HR 1589, the CBRN Intelligence and Information Sharing Act of 2019

The House passed this bill by a voice vote back in April. I would not normally expect the Committee to make any substantive changes to this bill in this type of crowded hearing.

Legislative Hearing

On Wednesday the Energy Subcommittee of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will hold a legislative hearing looking at 11 Department of Energy related bills. There is only one witness scheduled; Daniel Simmons from DOE. Two of those bills are of interest here:

• S 2556 – Protecting Resources On The Electric grid with Cybersecurity Technology Act of 2019

• S 2714 – ARPA-E Reauthorization Act

The language for S 2714 has just become available. I hope to be able to review it in detail before tomorrow’s hearing.

Committee Hearings – Week of 03-31-19

This week with both the House and Senate in session we continue to see a number of budget hearings. There is also a pipeline safety hearing

Budget Hearings

• House Homeland Security Subcommittee - TSA

• House Intelligence Committee – Intel Community (closed)

• House Energy and Water Development Subcommittee – Science, Energy and Environment

• Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee - DOE

Pipeline Safety

On Tuesday the Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials Subcommittee of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will hold a hearing on “Pipeline Safety: Reviewing the Status of Mandates and Examining Additional Safety Needs”. The witness list includes:

• Howard "Skip" R. Elliott, PHMSA;
• Jennifer L. Homendy, NTSB;
• Carl Weimer, Pipeline Safety Trust;

• Andrew J. Black, Association of Oil Pipe Lines;

• Dan Eggleston, International Association of Fire Chiefs;

• Richard B. Kuprewicz, Accufacts Inc.;

• Robin Rorick, API; and

• Elgie Holstein, Environmental Defense Fund

There is an outside chance that there will be a few questions related to pipeline cybersecurity.

On the Floor of the House

As I reported on Saturday the House will take up HR 1589, the CBRN Intelligence and Information Sharing Act of 2019. The bill will be considered under the House suspension of the rules process. This requires a super-majority to pass with minimal debate and no floor amendments. The bill is expected to receive substantial bipartisan support.

HR 1589 Reported in House – CBRN Intelligence

This week the House Homeland Security Committee published their report on HR 1589, the

CBRN Intelligence and Information Sharing Act of 2019. The Committee amended the bill in a hearing on March 13^th.

This bill is currently scheduled to be considered by the full House on Monday, April 1^st, 2019 under the suspension of the rules process. There will be limited debate and no floor amendments will be authorized. The bill is expected to be passed with substantial bipartisan support.

HR 1589 Marked Up in House

Today the House Homeland Security Committee held a markup hearing to consider seven bills, including HR 1589, the CBRN Intelligence and Information Sharing Act of 2019. That bill was amended twice and adopted by the Committee by unanimous consent as part of a block of bills.

Both of the amendments to HR 1589 were relatively minor wording additions.

The first amendment from Rep. Clarke (D,NY) changed §210H(a)(1) to read:

“(1) support homeland security-focused intelligence analysis of terrorist actors, their claims, and their plans to conduct attacks involving chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear materials against the United States, including critical infrastructure [added];”

The second amendment from Rep. Jackson-Lee (D,TX) changed §210H(a)(4) to read:

“(4) leverage existing and emerging homeland security intelligence capabilities and structures to enhance early detection, [added] prevention, protection, response, and recovery efforts with respect to a chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear attack;”

As I mentioned in my earlier blog post today, this bill will make its way to the floor of the House where it will be considered under the suspension of the rules process. That process does not provide for any additional amendments to be made from the floor. The bill will almost certainly pass with a significant bipartisan vote.

HR 1589 Introduced – CBRN Intelligence

Last week Rep. Walker (R,NC) introduced HR 1589, the CBRN Intelligence and Information Sharing Act of 2019. 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 §210H(a)(1)}. The bill is very similar to HR 677 from the last session which passed in the House without amendment.

There are a number of relatively small changes made in the current bill. The largest is the addition of the words “the Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office and” in paragraph (b). This office was created since HR 677 was introduced in 2017 and it would be added to the list of offices with which the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis would coordinate in developing CBRN information.

Moving Forward

As I mentioned earlier this week, HR 1589 will be considered by the House Homeland Security Committee in a markup hearing today. It is expected to pass by a voice vote without amendment. The bill is likely to come to the House floor in the not too distant future under the suspension of the rules process where there will be limited debate and no floor amendments will be authorized. The bill would be expected to pass there with substantial bipartisan support.

As in the last two sessions of Congress it is likely that this bill will not receive consideration in the Senate.

Commentary

While the word ‘chemical’ in the ‘CBRN’ of the title of this bill and in a couple of places within the language itself, there appears to be little intent to involve DHS intelligence in trying to track terrorist threats to chemical manufacturing or transportation. This bill remains at heart a bill addressing the potential threat of bioterror attacks.

While bioterrorism certainly presents a theatrical level threat, that type of attack is much harder to successfully pull off than a conventional or even a cyber attack on chemical storage or transportation systems. In my opinion paragraph (a)(5) of this bill should be modified to reflect this by making it read:

“(5) share information and provide tailored analytical support on such threats to:

(A) State, local, Tribal, and territorial authorities, and other Federal agencies;

(B) Relevant national biosecurity and biodefense stakeholders, as appropriate;

(C) Owners and operators of chemical facilities operating under the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards and the Maritime Transportation Security Act; and

(D) Freight rail owners operating under conditions specified in 49 CFR 1580 Subpart B.”

An interesting side note here; HR 677 was introduced by then Rep. McSally (R,AZ). She has since moved on to the Senate and has not yet introduced a version of this bill in the Senate. McSally was the chair of the Intelligence and Counterterrorism Subcommittee of the Homeland Security Committee when she introduced HR 677. Walker is not the Ranking Member of that Committee. This would seem to indicate that this bill is a priority for the Republican leadership of the Homeland Security Committee.

Committee Hearings – Week of 03-10-19

With both the House and Senate in session, this week starts the budget hearing process. There will also be a second CFATS hearing, a markup hearing and two cybersecurity hearings.

CFATS Hearing

On Tuesday the Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Innovation Subcommittee of the House Homeland Security Committee will hold a hearing on “Securing Our Nation's Chemical Facilities: Stakeholders Perspectives on Improving the CFATS Program”. The witness list includes:

• Randy E. Manner, Manner Analytics, LLC;

• John Morawetz, International Chemical Workers Union Council;

• Mike Wilson, BlueGreen Alliance;

• Pamela Nixon, People Concerned About Chemical Safety;

• Kirsten Meskill, BASF

People who have gotten used to see a panel of industry representatives supporting the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Security (CFATS) program will be in for a surprise. While I expect that there may be general support for the CFATS program on this panel, there will be lots of issues raised that we have not heard about in detail since the last time the Democrats were in the majority in the House.

Manner is going to be the witness to watch. This retired Army general does not have a strong connection that I can find to any of the chemical-safety advocacy groups we expect to hear from. Rather, he does have a specific interest in the management of cybersecurity (see a recent article here) and training.

Mark-up Hearing

On Wednesday the House Homeland Security Committee will hold a markup hearing looking at seven bills. Of specific interest here will be the markup of HR 1589, the CBRN Intelligence and Information Sharing Act of 2019. An official version of the bill has not yet been printed, but the Committee hearing page provides a link to a draft version of the bill which will be marked up. A quick look at the draft confirms that it is very similar to HR 677 that was passed in the House in last session. I do not expect much in the way of amendments to this bill.

Cybersecurity Hearings

On Tuesday the Senate Small Business Committee will hold a hearing on “An Existential Threat to Small Business”. The witness list includes:

• Charles Romine, NIST;

• Maria Roat, Small Business Administration;

• Karen A. Harper, Charles River Analytics, Inc.;

• Elizabeth Hyman, CompTIA; and

• Stacey Smith, Cyber Association of Maryland, Inc.

I do not see any indications that this hearing will specifically address control system security issues, but you can never tell.

On Wednesday, the Intelligence and Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee will be holding a hearing on Fiscal Year 2020 Budget Request for U.S. Cyber Command and Operations in Cyberspace. The witness list includes:

• Kenneth P. Rapuano, DOD;

• Paul M. Nakasone, NSA

This will be a high-level look at cybersecurity budgeting. I do not expect much in the way of policy specifics and there is little chance that control system security will receive specific mention.

Bills Introduced – 03-07-19

Yesterday with both the House and Senate preparing to leave for the weekend there were 117 bills introduced. Three of those bills may receive additional coverage in this blog:

HR 1589 To amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to establish chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear 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. Rep. Walker, Mark [R-NC-6] 

HR 1592 To direct the Secretary of Education to establish a pilot program to award competitive grants for the integration of cybersecurity education, and for other purposes. Rep. Langevin, James R. [D-RI-2]

S 715 A bill to improve the productivity and energy efficiency of the manufacturing sector by directing the Secretary of Energy, in coordination with the National Academies and other appropriate Federal agencies, to develop a national smart manufacturing plan and to provide assistance to small- and medium-sized manufacturers in implementing smart manufacturing programs, and for other purposes. Sen. Shaheen, Jeanne [D-NH] 

Most past legislative references to CBRN intelligence have focused on ‘biological’ issues as I suspect that HR 1589 will. Still I will cover this bill because the bill will mandate ‘chemical’ intelligence sharing even if that is not the focus.

HR 1592 will be followed here if it contains specific mention of industrial control system cybersecurity education.

Shaheen’s previous ‘smart manufacturing’ bills have not addressed cybersecurity concerns. We will have to see if this changes with this bill.