House Passes HR 5616 – DHS Accreditation

Yesterday the House passed HR 5616, the DHS Basic Training Accreditation Improvement Act of 2021 by a mostly bipartisan vote of 390 to 33. All of the opposing votes came from Republicans. The bill was considered under the suspension of the rules process with limited debate. In this case the debate was more about praising the bipartisan nature of the support for the bill than any discussion of its merits.

Committee Hearings – Week of 3-6-22

This week, with both the House and Senate in session, there are no hearings scheduled of particular interest here. There will be some legislative activity of interest, two DHS related bills and some sort of FY 2022 spending bill.

The House is currently scheduled to take up six bills under their suspension of the rules process this week. These include:

HR 5616 – DHS Basic Training Accreditation Improvement Act of 2021, as amended, and

S 658 – National Cybersecurity Preparedness Consortium Act of 2021, as amended

The deadline for passing the FY 2022 (which we are almost half-way through) spending bill is Friday. There are still a number of stumbling blocks holding up an agreement in the Senate on the provisions to be included in the bill. We may see yet another ‘short term’ continuing resolution.

HR 5616 Reported in House – DHS Training Accreditation

Earlier this month, the House Homeland Security Committee published their report on HR 5616, the DHS Basic Training Accreditation Improvement Act of 2021. The bill was approved in Committee by a voice vote on October 26^th, 2022, without amendment. Equally important, the Judiciary Committee, which was also assigned to consider the bill, was discharged from consideration of the bill. The bill is now cleared to be considered by the Full House.

The report specifically clarifies that the following DHS law enforcement training programs are not currently accredited:

• U.S. Border Patrol Academy,

• CBP’s Field Operations Academy Officer Basic Training Program, and

• U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ Officer Basic Training Program.

The report includes a copy of the letter from Rep Nadler (D,NY), Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, notifying Rep Thompson (D,MS), Chair of the Homeland Security Committee, that the Judiciary Committee will not take any action on the bill and would work with Thompson to see the bill passed. Such inter-committee cooperation is a prerequisite to a bill being considered by the Full House.

The bill is likely to be taken up by the House in March under the suspension of the rules process. It will almost certainly pass with a substantial bipartisan majority.

Review - HR 5616 Introduced – DHS Basic Training

Last week, Rep Demings (D,FL) introduced HR 5616, the DHS Basic Training Accreditation Improvement Act of 2021. The bill would require periodic reporting to Congress by DHS on the accreditation status of various basic training programs for law enforcement positions within the Department. No funding authorization is provided in the bill.

As I noted earlier today, this bill is scheduled for consideration tomorrow by the House Homeland Security Committee. I expect that the bill will receive broad bipartisan support. The bill will almost certainly move to the full House under the suspension of the rules process. This would provide limited debate, no floor amendments and would require a super majority to pass.

Most of the DHS training programs are operated out of Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers (FLETC). Those initial training programs that lead to law enforcement positions in the Department are being targeted by this bill. I know that in the early days of the CFATS program, CSI were trained at FLETC. While most of the early class of CSI came from federal law enforcement programs, the CSI positions are not considered to be law enforcement positions, so the CSI training program is not likely to be covered by this bill. I am not sure about the status of TSA’s surface inspectors.

For more details about the reporting requirements in the bill, and S&T research support requirements, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-5616-introduced - subscription required.

Bills Introduced – 10-19-21

Yesterday, with both the House and Senate in session, there were 54 bills introduced. Two of those bills may receive additional coverage in this blog:

HR 5616 To require reporting regarding accreditation of basic training programs of the Department of Homeland Security, and for other purposes. Rep. Demings, Val Butler [D-FL-10]

S 2993 A bill to amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to establish in the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency the National Cyber Exercise Program, and for other purposes. Sen. Rosen, Jacklyn [D-NV]

I will be watching HR 5616 for language and definitions that would indicate that Chemical Security Inspectors would be covered under the provisions of the bill.

S 2993 will be covered in this blog.