HOUSE CONTINUES DEBATE ON COMPROMISE HOMELAND SECURITY BILL
House will continue debate today (Thurs.) on compromise bill (HR-5710) to create Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS), including combined Directorate for Information Analysis & Infrastructure Protection (IA-IP). DHS would include undersecy. responsible for comprehensive national plan for protecting key national resources such as information technology and telecom systems, “including satellites, electronic financial and property record storage and transmission systems, emergency preparedness communications systems.”
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
Revised bill closely resembles original White House proposal but proposes middle ground on “management flexibility” over DHS work force. That provision had been stumbling block to movement of bill. Now that compromise is moving forward, passage could pave way for various initiatives of interest to communications industry. Under bill, President would appoint and Senate would confirm Undersecy. for IA-IP.
Entities that would be transferred to DHS include FBI’s National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC), with exception of NIPC’s Computer Investigations & Operations Section. Other transfers would be: (1) National Communications System from Dept. of Defense. (2) Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office from Dept. of Commerce. (3) National Infrastructure Simulation & Analysis Center from Dept. of Energy. (4) Federal Computer Incident Response Center of General Services Administration.
Bill also would require DHS to distribute network and “protected system” threat information among public and private sectors, while establishing guidelines to safeguard vulnerability of data that private sector voluntarily shared with govt. It implicitly would exempt voluntarily shared threat data from public disclosure under Freedom of Information Act. DHS Secy. would be required to consult with National Security Council and Office of Science & Technology Policy to establish uniform procedures to receive and store such information.
DHS would be required to appoint privacy officer to ensure homeland security database technologies “sustain, and do not erode, privacy protections related to the use, collection and disclosure of personal information.” New agency would appoint Officer for Civil Rights & Civil Liberties to investigate alleged abuses by DHS. That post would be made known via Internet and broadcast ads to alert public about its responsibilities, function, contact information.