I 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 170 

To direct the Secretary of Homeland Security to establish national hazard 

preparation and response exercises, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JANUARY 4, 2021 

Ms. SPANBERGER (for herself and Mr. KATKO) introduced the following bill; 

which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, and in addition to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, for a 

period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for 

consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 

A BILL 

To direct the Secretary of Homeland Security to establish 

national hazard preparation and response exercises, and 

for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Analyzing Disaster 

5 Vulnerabilites and Applicable National Capabilities for 

6 Emergencies Act’’ or the ‘‘ADVANCE Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. NATIONAL HAZARD PREPARATION AND RESPONSE 

2 EXERCISES. 

3 (a) REQUIREMENT.—Not later than 180 days after 

4 the date of the enactment of this Act and not less fre5 quently than twice every year thereafter, the Secretary, 

6 in coordination with the Secretary of Energy, shall con7 duct an exercise to test the modeling, simulation, and 

8 analysis capabilities and their utility for emergency re9 sponse of the United States with respect to significant nat10 ural disasters or public health emergencies impacting crit11 ical infrastructure. 

12 (b) PLANNING AND PREPARATION.—Each exercise 

13 under paragraph (1) shall be coordinated through NISAC 

14 and the National Laboratories. 

15 (c) PARTICIPANTS.— 

16 (1) FEDERAL GOVERNMENT PARTICIPANTS.— 

17 The following shall participate in each exercise 

18 under subsection (a): 

19 (A) Relevant interagency partners, as de20 termined by the Secretary. 

21 (B) Senior leader representatives from sec22 tor-specific agencies, as determined by the Sec23 retary. 

24 (2) STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS.—The 

25 Secretary shall invite representatives from State and 

26 local governments to participate in the exercises 


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1 under subsection (a) if the Secretary determines 

2 such participation to be appropriate. 

3 (d) ELEMENTS.—Each exercise under subsection (a) 

4 shall include the following elements: 

5 (1) Testing the capability of NISAC to perform 

6 modeling, simulation, and analysis to inform the sig7 nificant natural disaster and public health emer8 gency response of the United States with respect to 

9 impact on critical infrastructure, including the out10 break of infectious diseases, extreme weather events, 

11 or the overlapping combination of such outbreak or 

12 such weather event. 

13 (2) Testing of the relevant policy, guidance, and 

14 doctrine. 

15 (3) Testing of the information-sharing needs 

16 and systems. 

17 (4) Testing the coordination between Federal, 

18 State, and local governments. 

19 (e) REPORT.— 

20 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 60 days after 

21 the date on which each exercise under subsection (a) 

22 is conducted, the Secretary shall submit to the ap23 propriate congressional committees a report on each 

24 such exercise. 


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1 (2) MATTERS INCLUDED.—The report required 

2 under paragraph (1) shall include information relat3 ing to the following: 

4 (A) A list of the entities participating in 

5 an exercise required under subsection (a). 

6 (B) An assessment of overall performance 

7 during such an exercise. 

8 (C) A description of lessons learned from 

9 such an exercise, including— 

10 (i) gaps and limitations that require 

11 improvement; and 

12 (ii) recommendations with respect to 

13 planned changes to training. 

14 SEC. 3. ANNUAL REPORT TO CONGRESS RELATING TO THE 

15 IMPACT OF NATURAL DISASTERS OR PUBLIC 

16 HEALTH EMERGENCIES WITH RESPECT TO 

17 CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE. 

18 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days after the 

19 date of the enactment of this Act and annually thereafter, 

20 the Secretary shall submit to the appropriate congres21 sional committees a report describing the impact of nat22 ural disasters and public health emergencies with respect 

23 to critical infrastructure. 


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1 (b) MATTERS INCLUDED.—The report required 

2 under paragraph (1) shall include information relating to 

3 the following: 

4 (1) An assessment of the most concerning 

5 threats to critical infrastructure from natural disas6 ters or public health emergencies, including the se7 verity and probability of a threat to each critical in8 frastructure from each type of natural disaster. 

9 (2) An assessment relating to short-term and 

10 long-term damage that may result to each critical in11 frastructure from each type of natural disaster or 

12 public health emergency. 

13 (3) A description of the modeling tools and 

14 human capacity of NISAC to be utilized to inform 

15 emergency preparedness, and any changes to such 

16 tools and capacity since the previous report. 

17 (4) An assessment of modeling tools that may 

18 best inform the Federal Government with respect to 

19 cascading effects on infrastructure, transportation, 

20 public health, and the economy. 

21 (5) Recommendations of modeling, simulation, 

22 and training opportunities that may require further 

23 investment and maturation with respect to addi24 tional consultation and analysis, including— 

25 (A) DHS-CISA-NRMC and peer review; 


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1 (B) interagency consultation, as appro2 priate; 

3 (C) cost-effectiveness; and 

4 (D) consideration of the tools that can best 

5 inform the United States government under6 standing of cascading effects on infrastructure, 

7 transportation, the economy, and public health. 

8 SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS. 

9 In this Act: 

10 (1) APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT11 TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com12 mittees’’ means— 

13 (A) the Committee on Homeland Security, 

14 the Committee on Energy and Commerce, the 

15 Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, 

16 and the Committee on Transportation and In17 frastructure of the House of Representatives; 

18 and 

19 (B) the Committee on Homeland Security 

20 and Governmental Affairs, the Committee on 

21 Energy and Natural Resources, the Committee 

22 on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, and 

23 the Committee on Environment and Public 

24 Works of the Senate. 


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1 (2) CISA.—The term ‘‘CISA’’ means the Cy2 bersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency of 

3 the Department of Homeland Security. 

4 (3) CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE.— The term 

5 ‘‘critical infrastructure’’ has the meaning given that 

6 term in section 5195c(e) of title 42, United States 

7 Code. 

8 (4) DHS.—The term ‘‘DHS’’ means the De9 partment of Homeland Security. 

10 (5) NATIONAL LABORATORIES.—The term ‘‘Na11 tional Laboratories’’ means the United States De12 partment of Energy National Laboratories and 

13 Technology Centers. 

14 (6) NISAC.—The term ‘‘NISAC’’ means the 

15 National Infrastructure Simulation and Analysis 

16 Center. 

17 (7) NRMC.—The term ‘‘NRMC’’ means the 

18 National Risk Management Center of the Cybersecu19 rity and Infrastructure Security Agency. 

20 (8) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 

21 the Secretary of Homeland Security. 

22 (9) SECTOR-SPECIFIC AGENCY.—The term ‘‘sec23 tor-specific agency’’ has the meaning given the term 

24 ‘‘Sector-Specific Agency’’ in section 2201 of the 

25 Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 651). 


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1 (10) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ has the mean2 ing given the term in section 311 of title 5, United 

3 States Code. 

Æ 


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