[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 155 (Tuesday, September 18, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Page S6221]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        PETITIONS AND MEMORIALS

  The following petition or memorial was laid before the Senate and was 
referred or ordered to lie on the table as indicated:

       POM-303. A joint resolution adopted by the Legislature of 
     the State of California urging the President of the United 
     States and the United States Congress to work together to 
     implement grid hardening measures and to help ensure our 
     nation's critical electrical infrastructure is protected from 
     threats from electromagnetic pulses and physical attacks on 
     the infrastructure; to the Committee on Energy and Natural 
     Resources.

                     Senate Joint Resolution No. 20

       Whereas, Geomagnetic storms are natural phenomena involving 
     disturbances in the earth's geomagnetic field caused by solar 
     activity; and
       Whereas, Disruptions of electrical power caused by 
     geomagnetic storms, such as the collapse of the Hydro-Quebec 
     grid during the geomagnetic storm of 1989, have occurred many 
     times in the past; and
       Whereas, The congressionally mandated Commission to Assess 
     the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse 
     Attack found, in its report delivered in July of 2004, that 
     an enemy using a low-yield nuclear weapon detonated at a high 
     altitude above the United States could carry out an 
     electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack against the United States, 
     and that an EMP attack has the potential to place our society 
     at risk and to defeat the Armed Forces of the United States; 
     and
       Whereas, Congress has commissioned numerous other hearings 
     and reports on this issue, including the House of 
     Representatives National Security Committee hearing on the 
     EMP threat in 1997, the House of Representatives Military 
     Research and Development Subcommittee hearing on the threat 
     to the United States of potential EMP attacks in 1999, the 
     creation of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United 
     States from Electromagnetic Pulse Attack in 2001, the 
     congressional commission report, ``Critical National 
     Infrastructures,'' issued in 2008, the United States Navy 
     Naval Sea Systems Command EMP program in 2010, the North 
     American Electric Reliability Corporation/federal Department 
     of Energy report, ``High-Impact, Low-Frequency Event Risk to 
     the North American Bulk Power System,'' issued in 2010, and 
     the federal Department of Homeland Security testimony to the 
     House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security, 
     ``The Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Threat: Examining the 
     Consequences,'' in 2012; and
       Whereas, In April 2013, an electrical substation in San 
     Jose, California, was attacked with gunfire, leaving 
     transformers disabled for nearly four weeks in an apparent 
     attempt to disrupt power to Silicon Valley, raising questions 
     about the vulnerability of power grids across the United 
     States; now, therefore, be it
       Resolved by the Senate and the Assembly of the State of 
     California, jointly, That the Legislature urges the President 
     and the Congress of the United States to work together to 
     implement grid hardening measures and to help ensure our 
     nation's critical electrical infrastructure is protected from 
     threats from electromagnetic pulses and physical attacks on 
     the infrastructure; and be it further
       Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies 
     of this resolution to the President and the Vice President of 
     the United States, to the Speaker of the House of 
     Representatives, to the Majority Leader of the Senate, and to 
     each Senator and Representative from California in the 
     Congress of the United States.

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