House approves slew of homeland security measures
The eight bills, which address a range of IT issues that include cybersecurity and information sharing, could be added to the authorization bill for the Homeland Security Department.
The House has passed eight bills that address how the Homeland Security Department manages and uses information and technology.
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, said he hoped the measures, which he described as “vital,” would be included in the House-Senate conference on the DHS authorization bill.
The bills approved by the House would:
- Require DHS to use of open source information to develop and disseminate open source homeland security information products.
- Require DHS to work to prevent over-classification of information.
- Promote the implementation of the Controlled Unclassified Information Framework (CUI) at DHS. The CUI framework was laid out in by President Bush in May.
- Remove restrictions on how state and local authorities can spend DHS grants to support intelligence fusion centers.
- Require each DHS component agency to have a privacy officer.
- Levy new requirements and give new authorities to DHS’ chief information officer and requires DHS to examine contractor security policies.
- Clarify the criteria for certain radiation detection monitors that are to be deployed by DHS’ Customs and Border Protection.
- Authorize a Coast Guard program to test the use of mobile biometric identification technology for use on people attempting to enter the country illegaly.