September 25, 2019

Congressman Correa Joins In Passing Critical Bipartisan Homeland Legislation

Washington, D.C - Today, the House Homeland Security Committee unanimously passed two bipartisan bills to protect American infrastructure from cyberattacks and unmanned aircraft out of the Homeland Security Committee. These two bills—H.R. 1975, the Cybersecurity Advisory Committee Authorization Act of 2019, and H.R. 4432, the Protecting Critical Infrastructure Against Drones and Emerging Threats Act—provide critical protections to vital national resources from terrorists and take steps to prepare for future threats.

Congressman Correa said, “I want to thank my Democratic and Republican colleagues for coming together and passing this critical legislation. The threats of tomorrow are here today. With the rapid advancement in unnamed vehicles, terrorists now have new deadly tools at their disposal. We must make sure our national security professionals have the tools they need to address these threats. These two bills help us do that.”

BACKGROUND:

H.R. 4432, the “Protecting Critical Infrastructure Against Drones and Emerging Threats Act,” (Richmond) would require the DHS Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis (I&A) to develop and disseminate a terrorism threat assessment on unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and associated emerging threats, based on information requested from Federal, state, local, and private sector partners. Further, the bill would require I&A, in conjunction with the DHS Chief Information Officer and other relevant entities , to establish a secure communications and IT infrastructure that would, among other things, create a voluntary channel for critical infrastructure  owners and operators to report information on emerging terrorist threats, such as UAS threats, to the Department. This bill is based on a request from critical infrastructure owners and operators, including a request made during a 2018 hearing on the Chemical Facilities Anti-Terrorism Standards Program, for a way to report UAS and similar threats to DHS when they encounter them. 

H.R. 1975, the “Cybersecurity Advisory Committee Authorization Act,” (Katko) would establish a Cybersecurity Advisory Committee (Committee) within the DHS Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), to advise, consult with, report to, and make recommendations to the CISA Director on implementation of CISA’s cybersecurity mission. The Committee would be made up of no more than 35 members representing defense, education, financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, media and entertainment, chemicals, retail, transportation, energy, information, technology, communications, and other relevant fields identified by the Director. The Committee would be tasked with providing recommendations, at the request of the CISA Director, as well as periodic and annual reports.