I

107TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 1292

To require the President to develop and implement a strategy for homeland

security.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

MARCH 29, 2001

Mr. SKELTON introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Armed Services, and in addition to the Committees on Transportation and Infrastructure, the Judiciary, and Intelligence (Permanent

Select), 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 require the President to develop and implement a strategy

for homeland security.

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 ‘‘Homeland Security

5 Strategy Act of 2001’’.

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

7 Congress finds the following:
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1 (1) The United States needs to enhance activi2 ties to improve homeland security for its citizens and

3 territory in providing protection from the threat of

4 terrorist or strategic attacks, including cyber attacks

5 and attacks involving the use of chemical, biological,

6 radiological, or nuclear weapons.

7 (2) The two key aspects of homeland security

8 are—

9 (A) antiterrorism activities, including ac10 tivities relating to force protection, prevention

11 and detection of attack, law enforcement, public

12 health, reporting, and other activities that pre13 cede a domestic attack against the United

14 States; and

15 (B) consequence management, including

16 activities carried out by government entities

17 that are designed to respond to and mitigate

18 the effects of a domestic attack against the

19 United States.

20 (3) There is currently no well-publicized, widely

21 understood, comprehensive, governmentwide strategy

22 concerning the role of the United States Government

23 in homeland security crisis and consequence man24 agement.
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1 (4) Development and implementation of a

2 homeland security strategy will necessarily involve

3 several executive departments and agencies and will

4 only succeed if the heads of those departments and

5 agencies agree to fully support implementation of

6 the strategy within and across those departments

7 and agencies, including implementation of all aspects

8 of the strategy relating to resourcing and funding of

9 personnel and equipment.

10 (5) The United States Government does not

11 currently have an adequate strategic sense of the un12 conventional threats to the United States. Due to

13 the significant conventional military superiority of

14 the United States, future adversaries are unlikely to

15 risk a direct head-to-head military confrontation

16 with the United States, but rather are likely to seek

17 to exploit weaknesses in the domestic preparedness

18 and counterterrorism preparedness of the United

19 States.

20 (6) A United States homeland security strategy

21 should reflect a layered approach to homeland secu22 rity that provides for activities relating to each of

23 the following: prevention of an attack, protection

24 from an attack, and response to an attack.
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1 (7) The Department of Defense has assets that

2 could be used to provide and enhance homeland se3 curity, but those assets should only be used for that

4 purpose in appropriate circumstances.

5 SEC. 3. REQUIREMENT TO DEVELOP HOMELAND SECURITY

6 STRATEGY.

7 (a) REQUIREMENT TO DEVELOP STRATEGY.—The

8 President shall develop a comprehensive strategy for

9 homeland security under which Federal, State, and local

10 government organizations coordinate and cooperate to

11 meet homeland security objectives.

12 (b) COMPONENTS OF STRATEGY.—The homeland se13 curity strategy required to be developed under subsection

14 (a) shall include the following components:

15 (1) Identification of specific homeland security

16 threats based upon the results of the assessment

17 under subsection (c).

18 (2) Development of a specific strategy with re19 spect to antiterrorism activities and consequence

20 management that includes specific, measurable ob21 jectives by which the efficacy of the execution of the

22 strategy may be determined.

23 (3) Identification of the Federal executive de24 partments, agencies, and other organizations that

25 should play a role in protecting homeland security
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1 and specification of the role of each such organiza2 tion.

3 (4) Providing for the selective use of personnel

4 and assets of the Armed Forces in circumstances in

5 which those personnel and assets would provide

6 unique capability and could be used without infring7 ing on the civil liberties of the people of the United

8 States.

9 (5) Optimization of the use of intelligence as10 sets and capabilities, including improvement of the

11 processes by which intelligence information is pro12 vided to State and local governments.

13 (6) Providing for augmentation of existing med14 ical response capability and equipment stockpiles at

15 the Federal, State, and local levels.

16 (7) Development of a multiyear plan for phased

17 implementation of the strategy and a comprehensive

18 projected budget.

19 (c) RISK ASSESSMENT.—The President shall conduct

20 a comprehensive threat and risk assessment with respect

21 to homeland security to be used as the basis for the identi22 fication of specific homeland security threats for purposes

23 of subsection (b)(1).
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1 SEC. 4. IMPLEMENTATION OF STRATEGY.

2 (a) IN GENERAL.—The President shall implement

3 the homeland security strategy developed under section 3.

4 The President shall begin to implement the strategy as

5 soon as practicable and shall carry out such implementa6 tion in accordance with the plan developed under section

7 3(b)(7).

8 (b) DESIGNATION OF RESPONSIBLE OFFICIAL.—The

9 President shall designate a single official in the United

10 States Government to be responsible for, and to report to

11 the President on, homeland security.

12 (c) PARTICIPATION OF AGENCY HEADS.—The Presi13 dent shall ensure that the homeland security strategy, in14 cluding any organizational changes within the executive

15 branch required for the implementation of that strategy,

16 is carried out through the heads of the appropriate execu17 tive departments and agencies.

18 (d) RESTRUCTURING OF APPROPRIATIONS AC19 COUNTS AS NECESSARY.—The Director of the Office of

20 Management and Budget shall restructure appropriations

21 accounts as necessary to carry out the organizational and

22 operational changes made in implementing the homeland

23 security strategy.
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1 SEC. 5. REPORT TO CONGRESS.

2 (a) REPORT REQUIRED.—Not later than 90 days

3 after the date of the enactment of this Act, the President

4 shall submit to Congress a report describing—

5 (1) the process by which the homeland security

6 strategy required by this Act will be developed;

7 (2) the time line for developing such strategy;

8 and

9 (3) the anticipated funding and any legislative

10 changes necessary to carry out the strategy.

11 (b) CLASSIFIED ANNEX.—The report required under

12 subsection (a) shall be in unclassified form, but may con13 tain a classified annex as necessary.

14 SEC. 6. HOMELAND SECURITY DEFINED.

15 In this Act, the term ‘‘homeland security’’ means the

16 protection of the territory, critical infrastructures, and

17 citizens of the United States by Federal, State, and local

18 government entities from the threat or use of chemical,

19 biological, radiological, nuclear, cyber, or conventional

20 weapons by military or other means.

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