disseminate open source homeland security information 
products, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Homeland Security 
Open Source Information Enhancement Act of 2008’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) The Internet has profoundly expanded the 
amount, significance, and accessibility of all types of 
information, but the Department of Homeland Secu-
rity has not sufficiently expanded its use of such in-
formation to produce analytical products. 
(2) Open source products can be shared with 
Federal, State, local, and tribal law enforcement, the 
American public, the private sector, and foreign allies 
because of their unclassified nature. 
(3) The Department of Homeland Security is re-
sponsible for providing open source products to con-
sumers consistent with existing Federal open source 
information guidelines. 
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SEC. 3. FULL AND EFFICIENT USE OF OPEN SOURCE INFOR-
MATION. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Subtitle A of title II of the Home-
land Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 121 et seq.) is amended 
by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘SEC. 210F. FULL AND EFFICIENT USE OF OPEN SOURCE IN-
FORMATION. 
‘‘(a) RESPONSIBILITIES
OF SECRETARY.—The Sec-
retary shall establish an open source collection, analysis, 
and dissemination program within the Department. This 
program shall make full and efficient use of open source 
information to develop and disseminate open source intel-
ligence products. 
‘‘(b) OPEN SOURCE PRODUCTS.—The Secretary shall 
ensure that among the open source products that the De-
partment generates, there shall be a specific focus on open 
source products that— 
‘‘(1) analyze news and developments related to 
foreign terrorist organizations including how the 
threat of such organizations is relevant to homeland 
security; 
‘‘(2) analyze the risks and vulnerabilities to the 
Nation’s critical infrastructure; 
‘‘(3) analyze terrorist tactics and techniques to 
include recommendations on how to identify patterns 
of terrorist activity and behavior allowing State, local 
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and tribal first responders to allocate resources appro-
priately; and 
‘‘(4) utilize, as appropriate, computer-based elec-
tronic visualization and animation tools that combine 
imagery, sound, and written material into unclassi-
fied open source intelligence products. 
‘‘(c) SHARING RESULTS OF ANALYSIS.—The Secretary 
shall share the unclassified results of such analysis with ap-
propriate Federal, State, local, tribal, and private-sector of-
ficials. 
‘‘(d) PROTECTION OF PRIVACY.—The Secretary shall 
ensure that the manner in which open source information 
is gathered and disseminated by the Department complies 
with the Constitution, section 552a of title 5, United States 
Code (popularly known as the Privacy Act of 1974), provi-
sions of law enacted by the E-Government Act of 2002 (Pub-
lic Law 107–347), and all other relevant Federal laws. 
‘‘(e) INSPECTOR GENERAL REPORT.—The Inspector 
General of the Department shall audit the use and dissemi-
nation of open source information by the Department to 
evaluate the effectiveness of the Department’s activities and 
to ensure that it is consistent with the procedures estab-
lished by the Secretary or a designee of the Secretary for 
the operation of the Department’s open source program and 
with Federal open source information and intelligence 
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guidelines promulgated by the Director of National Intel-
ligence. 
‘‘(f) OPEN SOURCE INFORMATION DEFINED.—In this 
section the term ‘open source information’ means informa-
tion that is publicly available and that can be used and 
disseminated in a timely manner to an appropriate audi-
ence for the purpose of addressing a specific homeland re-
quirement. 
‘‘(g) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is 
authorized to be appropriated for each of fiscal years 2009 
through 2013 such sums as may be necessary to carry out 
this section.’’. 
(b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of contents in 
section 1(b) of such Act is amended by adding at the end 
of the items relating to such subtitle the following: 
‘‘Sec. 210F. Full and efficient use of open source information.’’. 
SEC. 4. PRIVACY AND CIVIL LIBERTIES IMPACT ASSESS-
MENT. 
Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment 
of this Act, the Privacy Officer and the Officer for Civil 
Rights and Civil Liberties of the Department of Homeland 
Security, in consultation with the Chief Privacy Officer and 
Civil Liberties Protection Officer of the Office of the Direc-
tor of National Intelligence, shall submit to the Secretary 
of Homeland Security, the Director of National Intelligence, 
the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental 
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Affairs of the Senate, the Committee on Homeland Security 
of the House of Representatives, and the Privacy and Civil 
Liberties Oversight Board, a privacy and civil liberties im-
pact assessment of the Department of Homeland Security’s 
open source program, including information on the collec-
tion, analysis, and dissemination of any information on 
United States persons. 
SEC. 5. OPEN SOURCE INFORMATION DEFINED. 
In this Act the term ‘‘open source information’’ has 
the meaning that term has in section 203 of Homeland Se-
curity Act of 2002, as amended by this Act. 
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Union Calendar No. 486 
110TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 3815 
[Report No. 110–763] 
A BILL 
To amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to 
require the Secretary of Homeland Security to 
make full and efficient use of open source infor-
mation to develop and disseminate open source 
homeland security information products, and for 
other purposes. 
JULY 21, 2008 
Reported with an amendment, committed to the Com-
mittee of the Whole House on the State of the Union, 
and ordered to be printed 
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