S 1180 Reported in Senate – IPAWS Modernization Act

Last week the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee published their report on S 1180, the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) Modernization Act. The report contains some interesting supporting information from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) as well as some background material on the existing IPAWS program.

Background

The existing IPAWS system which this bill is trying to codify and update was initiated in response to the 2006 EO 13407 signed by President Bush. The Report identifies two GAO reports (GAO-09-834 and GAO-13-375) that identified some of the problems that this bill attempts to resolve. The Committee Report does explain that improvements have been made at FEMA in response to those reports, but notes:

“This legislation will further this progress and help address many of the other problems stakeholders, Congress, and GAO previously identified, including helping to ensure sufficient training for emergency alerting officials, increasing collaboration at all levels of government, and ensuring Congress’s important role of oversight.”

CBO Information

The CBO is required to evaluate the costs of proposed legislation. For this bill they expect that the costs of the IPAWS upgrades would increase the funding needs over the next three years from the current spending level of $12 Million to $13 Million per year.

The CBO letter report explains that many of the requirement of this bill are currently being pursued by FEMA, but there are some new requirements for the system. Those new requirements include (pg 6):

∙ Training state and local governments and other stakeholders to use the system;

∙ Conducting nationwide testing of the system every three years: and

∙ Ensuring that IPAWS can withstand terrorist attacks.

Moving Forward

This bill was introduced by Sen. Johnson (R,WI) the Chair of the HSGAC. He has moved it expeditiously through his committee and I expect that it will make it to the floor, perhaps before the summer recess. It will almost certainly be passed under the unanimous consent provisions.

Two similar bills in the House, HR 1472 and HR 1738, are still pending publication of their respective Committee Reports. There is still the jurisdictional controversy that will have to be resolved by the House leadership before one of these bills makes it to the floor in the House. S 1180 would tend to support the House Homeland Security Committee’s claim to jurisdiction over the IPAWS oversight.

HR 1738 Introduced – Public Alert System Modernization

As I mentioned in an earlier post Rep. Bilirakis (R,FL) introduced HR 1738, the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System Modernization Act of 2015. The bill is virtually identical to HR 3283 from last session; which cleared the House Homeland Security Committee but was never considered on the floor. It is also very similar to HR 1472 which was approved by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee earlier this week.

The Two Bills

Both HR 1738 and HR 1472 attempt to do pretty much the same thing; modernize the national public alert system. Both would establish an inter-agency Advisory Committee to figure out the best way to accomplish this objective. They would also add upgrading State and local alert systems to the allowable uses of Homeland Security Grants without increasing the funding for that program.

There are two major differences in these bills. First, HR 1738 would go about implementing this program by amending the Homeland Security Act of 2002; a more formalized approach than HR 1472. Second, HR 1738 would authorize spending $13.4 million per year on the program where HR 1472 would only authorize $12.8 million.

On a minor note; HR 1738 does include a cybersecurity provision not seen in HR 1472. It would require that one of the design parameters for the modernized system is that is should be “to the greatest extent practicable, hardened against cyber attacks” {§526(c)(4)}.

Committee Politics

There is one other important difference between these two bills. HR 1738 has been assigned to two committees (Homeland Security and Transportation and Infrastructure) for consideration before it can get to the floor of the House. HR 1472 only has to (and already has) clear the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. The reason is that since HR 1738 amends the Homeland Security Act of 2002, the Homeland Security Committee has jurisdiction. Public alert systems fall under the purview of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Apparently though, the House leadership failed to realize (or ignored) the fact that HR 1472 also amend the Homeland Security Act in changing the grant use wording.

For HR 1738 to make it to the floor it would have to be considered by the Transportation and Infrastructure which fast tracked consideration of HR 1472 the competing bill. Either that or the Chair of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee would have to waive his right to consider the bill. Again, that is unlikely to happen given the approval of HR 1472.

Unless, of course, there is some horse trading going on between the two Chairmen on consideration of some other bill that is important to the Transportation and Infrastructure. This may be why Rep Barletta (R,PA and Chair of the Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management Subcommittee) introduced HR 1472 in the first place.

Bills Introduced – 04-13-15

The first day back in session and 55 bills are introduced. Seven of those may be of specific interest to readers of this blog:

HR 1731 To amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to enhance multi-directional sharing of information related to cybersecurity risks and strengthen privacy and civil liberties protections, and for other... Rep. McCaul, Michael T. [R-TX-10]

HR 1735 To authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2016 for military activities of the Department of Defense and for military construction, to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year.. Rep. Thornberry, Mac [R-TX-13] 

HR 1738 To amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to direct the Secretary of Homeland Security to modernize and implement the national integrated public alert and warning system to disseminate homeland... Rep. Bilirakis, Gus M. [R-FL-12]

HR 1753 To establish a National Office for Cyberspace, and for other purposes. Rep. Langevin, James R. [D-RI-2]

HR 1763 To provide for the minimum size of crews of freight trains, and for other purposes Rep. Young, Don [R-AK-At Large]

H Res 195 Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives about a national strategy for the Internet of Things to promote economic growth and consumer empowerment. Rep. Lance, Leonard [R-NJ-7] 

S 902 A bill to prohibit trespassing on critical infrastructure used in or affecting interstate commerce to commit a criminal offense. Sen. Schumer, Charles E. [D-NY]

HR 1731 is the new cybersecurity information sharing bill that is being marked up by the House Homeland Security Committee today.

HR 1735, the DOD spending bill, may contain cybersecurity language; we’ll see. This is one of the earliest spending bill introductions that I remember. We may actually see at least some of these passed before the start of the fiscal year.

HR 1738 is the second bill to address the national alerting system introduced this year. The first, HR 1472 is being marked up tomorrow. Unless something odd happens with either of these bills this will be the last time that they are mentioned.

HR 1753 could be interesting or it could be a bust. I’ll have to wait until I see the actual language to see if there is something specifically addressing control system security.

HR 1763 is a train safety issue. Unless the bill includes some specific mention of crude oil trains or hazmat shipments this will be the last mention here.

H Res 195 looks like it may be a response to S Res 110 that I lambasted when it was introduced. I’ll have more on this resolution later today.

S 902 looks like it is a re-issue of S 2934 that was introduced late in the last session of Congress. It was issued so late that I never really took a look at it. I’ll have to wait and see what it actually says before I decide to continue to cover it.