House Passes HR 397 - CBRN Intelligence and Information Sharing Act of 2021

Today the House finished their consideration of HR 397, the CBRN Intelligence and Information Sharing Act of 2021, in an unusual ‘bulk’ vote on 15 bills that were debated yesterday under the House suspension of the rules process. The bulk vote required a 2/3 super majority for passage and was passed with a significantly bipartisan 355 to 69. That is the same 2/3 majority that would have been required on a typical suspension of the rules vote on HR 397.

Elements of the Republican party demanded votes on each of the bills when they were considered yesterday. This has been a common occurrence in the 117^th Congress as more radical elements of the minority party have made a concerted effort to slow the operation of the House to keep the Democrats from completing their agenda.

The one vote for 15 bills process was outlined as a one-time effort by the House Rules Committee in their rule (H Res 330) for the consideration of three other bills being considered under normal order. That resolution passed by a straight party-line vote as do most rule resolutions when the bills to be considered under the rule are partisan bills.

While the Democrats have demonstrated a readily repeatable technique to counter the radical Republican delay tactics, the protestors countered with another unusual parliamentary delaying tactic. When the proforma motion to ‘reconsider’ the vote was offered, the standard reply to table the motion was made. Normally that motion to table is agreed to in a voice vote, but in this case Rep Biggs (R,AZ) demanded a recorded vote. That recorded vote was postponed until tomorrow. Technically, that vote could lead to invalidating today’s vote on the 15-bills, but it is highly unlikely. But, it will take up time on the floor of the House tomorrow, and that was the point of the exercise.

HR 397 will be sent to the Senate. It could be considered there under the Senate’s unanimous consent process with no debate and no amendments. One Senator, could stop that proceeding by objecting to the consideration of the bill, and that objection would not have to have anything to do with the provisions in the bill. The bill would not make it to the floor of the Senate under regular order; it is not important enough to take up the Senate’s time with debate and an amendment process.

Committee Hearings – Week of 4-18-21

This week, with both the House and Senate in session, there is a full slate of committee hearings. Budget hearings continue and there is one cyber workforce hearing scheduled. The House will take-up one chemical security bill and one piece of cyber related legislation this week.

FY 2022 Budget Hearings

4-21-21 Environmental Protection Agency House IER Subcommittee

Cyber Work Forces

On Wednesday the Senate Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing on “To receive testimony on the current and future cyber workforce of the Department of Defense and the military services.” The witness list includes:

• Lieutenant General Dennis Crall, DOD Joint Staff,

• Leonard Litton, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Defense for Military Personnel,

• Veronica Hinton, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Defense for Civilian Personnel Policy,

• John Sherman, Acting Department of Defense Chief Information Officer

Since a major portion of the DOD cyber workforce is on the civilian side of the House, this hearing should provide insights into some of  the problems facing the private sector cybersecurity workforce.

On the Floor

The House is scheduled to take up 23 bills this week under their suspension of the rules process. That means that there will be limited debate, no floor amendments, and the bills will require a supermajority to pass. The House leadership expects that all of the scheduled bills will receive significant bipartisan support.

Included in this week’s consideration are:

HR 397 – CBRN Intelligence and Information Sharing Act of 2021, and

HR 1251 – Cyber Diplomacy Act of 2021

I have not reviewed HR 1251 here as the bill contains no language or definitions that specifically address control system security concerns.

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.