HR 1542 Passes in House

This evening the House passed HR 1542, WMD Intelligence and Information Sharing Act of 2013, by a widely bipartisan vote: 388 – 3. The debate only lasted 11 minutes; the results were never in doubt. If this bill reaches the floor in the Senate it will pass there as well.

HR 1542 Introduced – WMD Intelligence

As I mentioned last week, Rep. Meehan (R,PA) introduced HR 1542, the WMD Intelligence and Information Sharing Act of 2013. This bill would amend the Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection subchapter of 6 USC by adding §124n (§210G; see note below) which would add specific weapons of mass destruction intelligence and information sharing requirements. This bill is virtually identical to HR 2764 that was passed in the House in the last session.

NOTE: The bill uses the standard convention of amending the Homeland Security Act of 2002 and bases its section numbering scheme on that document. I have converted these to references to 6 USC as that is easier to find and link to.

General CBRN Focus

This bill would provide for a general focus on CBRN intelligence by requiring the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis (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 [CBRN] materials against the Nation” {§124n(a)(1)} and 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” {§124n(a)(4)}.

The information sharing requirement for this intelligence only requires OIA to “share information and provide tailored analytical support on these threats to State, local, and tribal authorities” {§124n(a)(4)}. There is no specific requirement to address sharing of this intelligence information with potentially affected private sector entities.

Increased Biosecurity Focus

There is also a more tightly focused concern on biological weapons. While biological attacks are clearly included in the general focus of legislation, the bill goes on to specifically require “homeland security-focused intelligence analysis of global infectious disease, public health, food, agricultural, and veterinary issues” {§124n(a)(2)}. This is clearly intended to provide the Department with potential early warning of a bio-based attack.

Continues to Ignore Industrial Chemical Attack

As with every WMD related bill that I have seen to date, this bill continues to ignore the fact that the easiest WMD attack to execute against this country would be an attack on the storage or transportation of toxic, flammable or explosive industrial chemicals. While there are security programs in place to address the security side of the infrastructure protection equation, there is no one that is specifically tasked with providing the intelligence development and dissemination that those programs need to be most effective.

I would like to see an additional sub-paragraph added to §124n(a) that would read:

“(x) support homeland security-focused intelligence analysis of risks associated with potential attacks on dangerous industrial chemical manufacture, storage, distribution and transportation; with particular emphasis on the potential attempts to steal or divert industrial chemicals that could be used in the manufacture of improvised explosives or chemical weapons;”

Moving Forward

This bill will probably see quick action within the House Homeland Security Committee, particularly since Meehan is the Chair of the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection and Security Technologies. When the bill makes it to the floor of the House it will almost certainly pass with significant bipartisan support. If it makes it to the floor in the Senate it will also be very likely to pass.

Bills Introduced – 04-12-13

Yesterday with only the House in session, there were three bills introduced that might be of interest to the chemical security community; two port security bills and another WMD bill. Those bills were:

HR 1534 Latest Title: To amend section 70107 of title 46, United States Code, to authorize appropriations for the port security grant program through 2017. Sponsor: Rep Hahn, Janice (D,CA)

HR 1535 Latest Title: To direct the Secretary of Homeland Security to conduct a study and report to Congress on gaps in port security in the United States and a plan to address them.  Sponsor: Rep Hahn, Janice (D,CA)

HR 1542 Latest Title: To amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to establish weapons of mass destruction 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. Sponsor: Rep Meehan, Patrick (R,PA)

I suspect that HR 1542 will be similar to HR 2764 that was passed in the House last year, but was never taken up by the Senate. Similarly HR 1534 will be similar to HR 4005 that suffered a similar fate. Both bills passed with bipartisan support and probably would have passed in the Senate if the leadership had been interested in bringing them to the floor for a vote.

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.

Congressional Hearings – Week of 3-26-12

This week the battle for the FY 2013 budget officially begins with a hearing before the House Rules Committee. There will also be two markup hearings before the House Homeland Security Committee concerning port security and WMD intelligence. Finally there will two hearings about TSA; one looking at ‘Security Theater’ and one looking at ‘Rightsizing’.

Budget Hearing

While there have been a large number of hearings looking at the President’s budget request for FY 2013, no real action has been taken to date on the FY 2013 budget. The House Rules Committee will be meeting Tuesday to set the rule for the consideration of the as of yet un-numbered House Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for FY 2013. Once (if) this is passed it will form the basis for setting the amounts in the spending bills for each Departments of the federal government for next year.

It goes without saying that there will be some lively debate on this resolution and it will almost certainly pass in the House. If the past couple of years are any indication the Senate will not take up the resolution.

Markup Hearings

The Subcommittee on Border and Maritime Security of the House Homeland Security Committee will be meeting on Tuesday to mark up the recently introduced HR 4251, the Securing Maritime Activities through Risk-based Targeting for Port Security (SMART Port Security) Act, that I discussed in an earlier blog. While Chairman Miller has a proprietary interest in seeing her bill move forward, it will be interesting to see how fast the Full Committee takes up this bill. The longer it takes the less likely it will be for DHS to meet the nearly impossible deadlines imposed in this bill.

On Wednesday the House Homeland Security Committee will be marking up four separate bills in a single hearing. They are:

• HR 2179; transferring unclaimed funds recovered by TSA to the USO;

• HR 2764; the WMD Intelligence and Information Sharing Act of 2011;

• HR 3140; the Mass Transit Intelligence Prioritization Act; and

• HR 3563; the Alert and Warning System Modernization Act of 2011.

The bill most likely to be of interest to the chemical security community is HR 2764. This is an intelligence and information sharing bill dealing with WMD issues. While it’s main focus is bioweapons it does provide some general guidance on intelligence collection for the whole range of CBRN weapons. The Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence took no action on this bill beyond reporting it with a favorable recommendation by a voice vote; it wasn’t even discussed before the vote.

TSA in the Spotlight

The House Transportation Committee and the Oversight and Government Reform Committee will hold a joint oversight hearing Monday looking at the TSA; “Effective security or security theater”. A Transportation Committee press release notes that one of the foci of this hearing will be the TWIC program. Should be an interesting if not necessarily informational hearing; the security blogger Bruce Schneier will be one of the witnesses.

The House Homeland Security Committee’s Subcommittee on Transportation Security will be meeting on Wednesday to look at “Rightsizing TSA Bureaucracy and Workforce Without Compromising Security”. There is no information available yet on witnesses, but I suspect that this will be a further look at reducing the size of the TSA’s airport security operation by allowing, even encouraging, airports to hire their own security screeners. I will be very surprised if there is a mention of the surface security inspection force; it’s just too small to attract attention or really accomplish anything. Come to think of it I hope that isn’t a ‘rightsized’ inspection force.

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.

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.