HR 2764 – WMD Intelligence – Passes in House

Yesterday the House considered HR 2764, the WMD Intelligence and Information Sharing Act of 2011, under a suspension of the rules. The bill passed without apparent opposition by a voice vote.

The entire process took just a little over six minutes to complete; using much less than the authorized 40 minutes for debate. The ‘debate’ consisted of short speeches in favor of the bill by just three members; the Homeland Security Chairman, Rep. King (R,NY); the Ranking Member, Rep. Thompson (D,MS); and Rep. Jackson-Lee (D, TX).

If the Senate gets around to taking up this bill, and that will become less likely as we get closer to election season, it will probably pass with similar bipartisan support. There is no indication that there will be any significant attempts to amend the bill to expand its coverage beyond the bio-security concerns found in its present version.

HR 2764 Marked-up and Ordered Reported Favorably

Yesterday the House Homeland Security Committee, during a multi-bill mark-up hearing, amended HR 2764, the WMD Intelligence and Information Sharing Act of 2011, and ordered it reported favorably to the Full House by a voice vote. The sole amendment considered was also adopted by a voice vote.

The one amendment considered dealt with a change in wording about the extent of the bio-threat being considered by portions of the bill. So once again a WMD bill almost totally ignores the much more probable WMD threat of an attack on a large scale chemical facility being used as a chemical weapon to attack the adjacent community. Fortunately, to date the terrorists appear to have been a short sighted as Congress.

HR 2764 Mark-Not

I noted earlier this week that the Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence of the House Homeland Security Committee was to hold a mark-up hearing for HR 2764, the WMD Intelligence and Information Sharing Act of 2011. Well the hearing was held yesterday and nothing was done. Okay, that is totally not fair; the Subcommittee ordered the bill “to be reported to the Full Committee with a favorable recommendation, without amendment by voice vote”.

So, there is no change from the introduced bill. We will now get to wait to see what the full Committee will do with their mark-up.

Congressional Hearings – Week of 11-14-11

Both the House and Senate will be in Washington this week, but the FY 2012 spending issue will be the big news this week, not Congressional hearings (remember the current ‘continuing resolution’ expires on the 18^th). There will be two House hearings this week of potential interest to the chemical and cyber security communities, plus the House will finish work on HR 2838, the Coast Guard authorization bill.

Cyber Security

The Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security of the House Judiciary Committee will be holding a hearing on Thursday about cyber security. Politically this is an impressive array of witnesses, including Michael Chertoff, but there is no one with specific control system expertise. Who knows, though, industrial control system security might be mentioned in passing; some Representative might even ask an ICS related question. Stranger things have happened.

Subcommittee Mark-up

The Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence of the House Homeland Security Committee will also meet on Thursday to mark-up two bills; HR 2764, the WMD Intelligence and Information Sharing Act of 2011, and HR 3140, the Mass Transit Intelligence Prioritization Act. The second is an issue to the chemical security community only in that it reduces the number of DHS intelligence folks that might be looking at chemical intelligence issues. Without adding analysts this is a zero sum game that reduces the security of everyone else.

As I mentioned in my original posting on HR 2764 this is yet another bio-terrorism bill. Okay, I do have to admit it has some generic chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear language in it, but the main focus is on bio-weapons.

If anyone on the HS Committee Staff is reading, I’ll repeat my plug in that blog for an addition to this bill:

“What is lacking in the CFATS program (okay one of the things that is lacking) is an intelligence collection, analysis and dissemination capability to identify potential threats. This bill would be an excellent place to require OIA to establish a national chemical fusion center that would bring together government and private sector chemical intelligence collection and analysis capabilities. This could be coordinated with the Office of Infrastructure Protection to include communications to and from high-risk chemical facilities; the most likely sources of material for a truly large scale CBRN attack.”

Coast Guard Authorization

According to the Majority Leader’s web page the House will resume consideration of HR 2838 on Tuesday. Remember this is a restricted rule and only two pre-approved amendments are left to consider. The House version of this bill does have a ‘Homeland Security’ provision (okay, this is a real stretch); § does make GPS interference a felony if it affects maritime safety. As I asked in initial post on this bill; would that cover effecting ICS at an MTSA covered portside facility? It is just too vague to tell.

FY 2012 Spending

The Senate is due to start taking up HR 2354 on Monday afternoon. This bill would make appropriations for energy and water development and related agencies for FY 2012. While the amendment filing process has begun on this bill, I have yet to see the standard ‘amendment in the form of a substitute’ from the Senate Appropriations Committee. This may be because this bill may become the ‘vehicle’ for another short term extension of current spending authority. Various press sources have mentioned ‘Christmas’ (probably December 18^th) as the expiration of that ‘continuing resolution’. Or, the House could end up drafting a new CR out of whole cloth.

HR 2764 Introduced – WMD Intelligence

Earlier this week Rep. Meehan (R, PA), joined by three Republican and two Democratic colleagues, introduced HR 2764, the WMD Intelligence and Information Sharing Act of 2011. The bill would amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to require the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis (OIA) to develop intelligence on weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and share that information.

General CBRN Focus

As with most WMD it is obvious that the authors are mostly concerned with biological attacks, but the language in this bill provides more emphasis on whole range of chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear attacks. In adding §210G to Subtitle A of title II of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 the bill would require the 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 materials against the Nation” {§210G(a)(1)}.

Additionally, the OIA would be directed 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” {§210G(a)(4)}.

Specific Biosecurity Focus

The specific focus on biosecurity issues can be seen in the requirement to “support homeland security-focused intelligence analysis of global infectious disease, public health, food, agricultural, and veterinary issues;” {§210G(a)(2)}.

Even where the bill directs OIA to share this intelligence information with State, local, and tribal authorities, it provides for the additional sharing of the information with “other national biosecurity and biodefense stakeholders” {§210G(a)(5)}. Interestingly, the only place in the new §210G that mentions the private sector is in the definition of ‘biosecurity and biodefense stakeholders’ which the language explains includes “individuals from the private sector who are involved in efforts to prevent, protect against, respond to, and recover from a biological attack” {§210G(d)(3)}.

Private Sector Intelligence Sharing

The Homeland Security Act of 2002 already requires the Secretary to share intelligence information with sharing intelligence information with “private sector entities with such responsibilities [relating to homeland security] in order to assist in the deterrence, prevention, preemption of, or response to, terrorist attacks against the United States.” {6 USC 121(d)(8)}. Section 3 of this bill would make some minor changes in the wording of this requirement, principally adding ‘tribal’ entities to the list of government agencies (State and local) included in the information sharing requirements.

As I have mentioned on a number of occasions (drum banging warning) it seems obvious that there is a much more likely CBRN threat than a biological or radiological attack and that is a chemical attack using any of a wide variety of readily available industrial chemicals. The technology for weaponizing those chemicals is much simpler than that for biological or radiological agents and they are much easier to find. This is the reason that we have the CFATS program after all.

What is lacking in the CFATS program (okay one of the things that is lacking) is an intelligence collection, analysis and dissemination capability to identify potential threats. This bill would be an excellent place to require OIA to establish a national chemical fusion center that would bring together government and private sector chemical intelligence collection and analysis capabilities. This could be coordinated with the Office of Infrastructure Protection to include communications to and from high-risk chemical facilities; the most likely sources of material for a truly large scale CBRN attack.