[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 127 (Tuesday, July 29, 2008)]
[House]
[Pages H7189-H7191]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   HOMELAND SECURITY OPEN SOURCE INFORMATION ENHANCEMENT ACT OF 2008

  Ms. HARMAN. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the 
bill (H.R. 3815) to amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to require 
the Secretary of Homeland Security to make full and efficient use of 
open source information to develop and disseminate open source homeland 
security information products, and for other purposes, as amended.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                               H.R. 3815

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives 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 Security has not sufficiently 
     expanded its use of such information 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 responsible for 
     providing open source products to consumers consistent with 
     existing Federal open source information guidelines.

     SEC. 3. FULL AND EFFICIENT USE OF OPEN SOURCE INFORMATION.

       (a) In General.--Subtitle A of title II of the Homeland 
     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 
                   INFORMATION.

       ``(a) Responsibilities of Secretary.--The Secretary 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 intelligence products.
       ``(b) Open Source Products.--The Secretary shall ensure 
     that among the open source products that the Department 
     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 and tribal first 
     responders to allocate resources appropriately; and
       ``(4) utilize, as appropriate, computer-based electronic 
     visualization and animation tools that combine imagery, 
     sound, and written material into unclassified open source 
     intelligence products.

[[Page H7190]]

       ``(c) Sharing Results of Analysis.--The Secretary shall 
     share the unclassified results of such analysis with 
     appropriate Federal, State, local, tribal, and private-sector 
     officials.
       ``(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), provisions of 
     law enacted by the E-Government Act of 2002 (Public Law 107-
     347), and all other relevant Federal laws.
       ``(e) Inspector General Report.--The Inspector General of 
     the Department shall audit the use and dissemination 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 established 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 guidelines promulgated by 
     the Director of National Intelligence.
       ``(f) Open Source Information Defined.--In this section the 
     term `open source information' means information that is 
     publicly available and that can be used and disseminated in a 
     timely manner to an appropriate audience for the purpose of 
     addressing a specific homeland requirement.
       ``(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 ASSESSMENT.

       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 
     Director of National Intelligence, shall submit to the 
     Secretary of Homeland Security, the Director of National 
     Intelligence, the Committee on Homeland Security and 
     Governmental 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 impact assessment of the Department of Homeland 
     Security's open source program, including information on the 
     collection, 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 Security Act 
     of 2002, as amended by this Act.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentlewoman from 
California (Ms. Harman) and the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Bilirakis) 
will each control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from California.


                             General Leave

  Ms. HARMAN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may 
have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include 
extraneous material on the bill under consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from California?
  There was no objection.
  Ms. HARMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  I rise in support of H.R. 3815, the Homeland Security Open Source 
Enhancement Act of 2008, introduced last year by our subcommittee 
member, Ed Perlmutter, who is, by my lights, though a freshman member, 
an enormously talented contributor to the work of our subcommittee.

                              {time}  1330

  Regrettably, he couldn't be here for this debate this afternoon.
  This is an important piece of legislation that will go a long way 
towards ensuring that the Department offers critical intelligence 
products that matter to its State, local and tribal partners.
  Mr. Speaker, the Federal Government has, at its disposal, nearly 
limitless amounts of unclassified, open source information and can 
share it with key stakeholders, regardless of whether those partners 
have security clearances.
  This is crucial because the next attack in the U.S. will not be 
stopped, as I mentioned earlier, by a bureaucrat in Washington, D.C., 
it will be the cop on the beat who is familiar with the rhythms and 
nuances of his or her neighborhood who will find out about that attack. 
An observant police officer somewhere in America will see something or 
someone out of place and, guided by timely, accurate and actionable and 
unclassified, open source information, will connect the dots that will 
unravel that new potential terrorist plot.
  The Department, and specifically its Office of Intelligence and 
Analysis, has pursued a variety of missions without a clear focus. Open 
source is a case in point.
  The Department's open source efforts have lagged far behind the rest 
of the Federal Government. While the DNI and the CIA have both 
established programs in this area, DHS, the lead Federal agency 
responsible for sharing terrorism threat and vulnerability information 
with State and local law enforcement, has yet to articulate a vision 
for how it will collect, analyze and disseminate it to stakeholders.
  This legislation directs the Department to jump start its open source 
program and protect the privacy, civil rights and civil liberties of 
all Americans in the process. It will help DHS fill a critical gap in 
information sharing, and, hopefully, provide its primary customers with 
timely and actionable information.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge passage of this important legislation and reserve 
the balance of my time.
  Mr. BILIRAKIS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may 
consume.
  I rise today in support of H.R. 3815, the Homeland Security Open 
Source Information Enhancement Act, sponsored by my committee 
colleague, Representative Ed Perlmutter, who is a great Member, by the 
way.
  H.R. 3815 will require the Secretary to establish an open source 
collection analysis and dissemination program within the Department of 
Homeland Security. This program would help facilitate information-
sharing between the Federal Government and State, local and private 
sector officials to take advantage of the vast amount of information 
that is publicly available through open sources.
  Importantly, the bill would require the Secretary to protect the 
privacy rights of individuals, including by conducting a private impact 
statement on the Department's open source program.
  H.R. 3815 also requires the Inspector General to audit the use and 
dissemination of open source information to evaluate the effectiveness 
of the Department's activities in this area and its consistency with 
the open source policies of the Director of National Intelligence.
  Mr. Speaker, I believe the Department of Homeland Security should 
take full advantage of open source information and ensure its proper 
dissemination to appropriate entities to maximize our homeland 
security. I encourage our colleagues to help move the Department closer 
toward that goal by supporting H.R. 3815.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Ms. HARMAN. Mr. Speaker, we have no further speakers, and I am 
prepared to close once the minority has closed.
  Mr. BILIRAKIS. Mr. Speaker, I just urge everyone to support this 
bill. Again, it is a very good bill.
  I yield back.
  Ms. HARMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may 
consume, and I am prepared to close debate.
  Mr. Speaker, I am thinking back to those years on the Intelligence 
Committee, when I would leave classified briefings dissatisfied with 
the amount of information I was receiving. I would then go out and read 
my local newspaper or maybe an article that I had saved for airplane 
reading, and realize that in open sources there was a huge amount of 
information directly relevant to the problem that had not been 
organized in a way that I could quickly access it, and that in fact was 
probably more useful than the classified briefings I received. This 
happened not one time, not five times, but often.
  So the point of Mr. Perlmutter's excellent legislation is to help the 
Department of Homeland Security, which has primary responsibility for 
the security of our homeland, make public source information available 
to those who need it to keep us safe. And those would be our first 
preventers, police and firefighters in our neighborhoods, and the 
general public. It sounds obvious, but it doesn't happen. And I 
appreciate the support of Mr. Bilirakis and the unanimous support of 
the members of the committee.
  Again, I want to commend the bill's principal author, Mr. Perlmutter, 
for offering this legislation.

[[Page H7191]]

  I ask for an ``aye'' vote on the bill and yield back the balance of 
my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Harman) that the House suspend the 
rules and pass the bill, H.R. 3815, as amended.
  The question was taken.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds 
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
  Mr. BILIRAKIS. Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a 
quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not 
present.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the 
Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this motion will be 
postponed.
  The point of no quorum is considered withdrawn.

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