CIPA

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 3410, the Critical Infrastructure Protection Act, of which I am a cosponsor.

Mr. Speaker, recently, there has been increased interest in bolstering the resilience of our Nation's electrical power distribution and delivery system. In particular, there is growing interest in looking at the damage that could naturally occur to that system through powerful weather storms and geomagnetic disturbances, as well as through intentional and malicious physical and cyber attacks.

Earlier this Congress, the House approved legislation authored by my committee colleague and neighbor, Mr. Payne, to broadly research the threats to our electric grid. Today, we have an opportunity to foster progress on low-probability but high-consequence threats to the grid: electromagnetic pulse, or EMP, and geomagnetic disturbances, or GMD.

Today, our Nation's power system operates at such a high level of reliability that any major outage, either caused by heavy weather storms, operational errors, or sabotage, makes headlines. Our transmission system is the most complex and extensive of any system on the globe, consisting mainly of transformers, switches, transmission towers and lines, control centers, and computer controls.

The main risk for weather-related damage or a terrorist attack is a widespread power outage that lasts for an extended period of time. The damage that such an outage could have to the welfare of our citizens and economy is hard to measure, but it would certainly be very significant.

With that in mind, H.R. 3410 seeks to gain ground against this homeland security challenge. It does so by directing the Department of Homeland Security to include EMP and GMD in national planning scenarios; conduct outreach to critical infrastructure owners and operators, emergency planners, and emergency responders on the threats posed; conduct targeted research; and develop a strategy for addressing the threats.

I am disappointed that the bill provides no new resources to the Department to carry out these activities, but I am appreciative of the majority's willingness to work with me to refine the language to provide needed flexibility to the Department in how it carries out these activities.

That said, since H.R. 3410 had to bypass regular order to be considered here today, we did not have the time to include some small but key refinements. Specifically, the definitions in this bill for electromagnetic pulse, or EMP, and geomagnetic, or GMD, would benefit from further fine-tuning down the line so risk of these two distinct events being conflated is avoided.

An EMP is an electromagnetic pulse caused by intentional means, such as an act of war or terrorism. A GMD is a geomagnetic disturbance caused by solar storms or other naturally occurring phenomena. While some have gotten in the habit of calling them both EMPs, they are not the same, thus requiring differing mitigation and resiliency responses.

Like my colleagues Mr. Meehan and Mr. Franks, I am very concerned about the potential impact and the types of threats posed by EMPs and GMDs. However, I think we should take care to make clear the distinct differences between the two.

We also know that public-private partnerships are essential to addressing the challenge of fully understanding the threats caused by EMPs and GMDs, especially because the overwhelming majority of our electric grid is privately held by large investor-owned utilities, or is part of the rural electric cooperatives systems or members of the American Public Power network that represents not-for-profit, community-owned electric utilities.

I would note that the Department currently has a variety of planning efforts for solar weather geomagnetic disturbance events and other electromagnetic pulse damage under its all-hazards risk planning, including research on technologies to improve resiliency in the electric grid sector.

Additionally, the Department's science and technology directorate has cosponsored with private utilities an exercise in a fast-turnaround transformer replacement project. This effort is known as the Recovery Transformer Project, and it hopes to increase the resiliency of the transmission power grid through the use of more mobile and modular transformers.

Again, I want to thank Chairman McCaul and Chairman Meehan for working with me. I also thank Representative Franks, who has been a tireless and relentless proponent of this legislative measure to protect our Nation's electrical infrastructure. He is internationally known for his unwavering pursuit of this critical concern, and over the past few years has been viewed as a go-to legislator on protecting our Nation's infrastructure. It has been a real pleasure to engage in a moment of bipartisan interaction, particularly on a matter of such great import nationally and internationally, and I thank the gentleman.

As we enter the waning days of the 113th Congress, I sincerely hope this measure gets enacted into law. But in the event that it does not, I look forward to working with the majority on advancing this bill through regular order next Congress to ensure a more robust examination of the bill's impact on the Department and on industry.

With that, Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, while the threat of an EMP or GMD event is real, I believe we need to use fully informed risk-based, scientific, and, frankly, commonsense plans and exercises to give us a clearer picture of how to prevent and respond in the event of an EMP or GMD incident.

This bill will give Congress a more complete understanding of preparedness, response, and recovery activities related to any type of EMP or geomagnetic disturbance incident, and could provide a thoughtful background that can assist the Nation's response and resiliency if high-impact, grid-related events do occur.

With that, I urge Members to support H.R. 3410, the Critical Infrastructure Protection Act, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Chairman Mike McCaul, Subcommittee Chairman Pat Meehan, and, of course, Ranking Member Yvette Clarke for their principled and unwavering leadership in bringing this legislation to the floor. I was touched by the gentlelady's words as well. I would also especially like to personally thank Chairman Pete Sessions, the sole original cosponsor of this bill, for being a tireless champion of protecting our Nation's critical infrastructure against EMP.

Mr. Speaker, back in August of 2003, a large section of our electric grid was knocked out across the Eastern United States. Fifty million people were affected after 21 power plants shut down in just 3 minutes. Office workers streamed into parking lots, and many commuters were stranded inside their trains. In a matter of moments, those things that make up our critical infrastructure, from the electric grid to water pumps to cell phone service to computer systems, were disrupted. Life suddenly changed that day in New York, Mr. Speaker, as well as in Cleveland, Detroit, and all the way into Canada. In New York City alone, this short blackout was estimated to cost more than a half- billion dollars.

Mr. Speaker, a worst-case natural or manmade electromagnetic pulse-- EMP--event represents a dangerous threat that could have a prolonged catastrophic impact on our electric grid--our most critical and our most interdependent infrastructure.

There are at least 11 major government reports and studies describing our vulnerabilities to electromagnetic pulses. Our Defense Department has wisely hardened many of our most critical defense assets like our strategic nuclear triad and our missile defense systems. However, our civilian grid remains fundamentally unprotected against severe EMP.

Whether catalyzed by non-nuclear intentional electromagnetic interference, a major solar storm, or a high-altitude nuclear blast, EMP is an invisible force of ionized particles with the potential to overwhelm and destroy our present electrical power grids, which would profoundly impact our civilization.

The National Intelligence University of the United States recently translated an Iranian military doctrine called ``Passive Defense'' which referenced the use of nuclear EMP as a weapon more than 20 times. This doctrine stresses that electrical grids are vital to national existence. It includes a formula for calculating the value of electric power plants and for prioritizing the targeting of electric grid components and other infrastructures.

Mr. Speaker, we know all too well the Obama administration has just extended talks with the world's leading

state sponsor of terrorism, allowing them even more time in their inexorable march toward a nuclear weapons capability.

After the terrorist attacks on 9/11, the Department of Homeland Security was founded. It created a Presidentially-appointed position for an Assistant Secretary for Infrastructure Protection. Among the Assistant Secretary's main duties is the responsibility to ``develop a comprehensive national plan for securing the key resources and critical infrastructure of the United States, including power production, generation, and distribution systems.''

Yet 12 years later, Mr. Speaker, no such plan is in place, and our Nation's critical infrastructure, including those key resources like power production, generation, and distribution systems, are still vulnerable to large-scale blackouts from severe electromagnetic pulse and geomagnetic disturbances.

For all of these reasons, Mr. Speaker, we are here this night to pass the Critical Infrastructure Protection Act, which, if signed into law, will represent the first time in history that Congress will be specifically addressing this dangerous threat of electromagnetic pulse. This legislation will enhance the DHS threat assessments for EMP through research and reporting requirements. It will also help the United States prevent and prepare for such an event by including large- scale blackouts into existing national planning scenarios, including educational awareness for the first responders, all to protect the critical infrastructure. Most importantly, Mr. Speaker, it will require specific plans for protecting and recovering the electric grid and other critical infrastructure from a dangerous electromagnetic pulse event.

Mr. Speaker, there is a moment in the life of nearly every problem when it is big enough to be seen by reasonable people and still small enough to be addressed. Those of us in this Chamber, and across America, live in a time where there still may be opportunity for the free world to address and mitigate the vulnerability that naturally occurring or weaponized EMP represents to the mechanisms of our civilization. This is our moment.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 3410) to amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to secure critical infrastructure against electromagnetic pulses, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous materials on the bill under consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 3410, the Critical Infrastructure Protection Act, or CIPA.

In 1962, the United States conducted a test named Starfish Prime, where the military detonated a 1.4-megaton thermonuclear bomb about 25 miles above Johnston Atoll in the Pacific. In space, six American, British, and Soviet satellites suffered damage, and 800 miles away in Hawaii, burglar alarms sounded, streetlights blinked out, and phones, radios, and televisions went dead. While only 1 percent of the existing streetlights were affected, it became clear that electromagnetic pulse, or EMP, could cause significant damage.

EMP is simply a burst of electromagnetic radiation that results from certain types of high-energy explosions or from a suddenly fluctuating magnetic field. An EMP can be generated by nuclear weapons from naturally occurring sources such as solar storms or specialized nonnuclear EMP weapons. An EMP event could range from a small-scale incident, with little or no permanent damage, to a large-scale event, with dire consequences. In fact, a successful large-scale EMP event could damage electrical power systems, electronics, and information systems, and these effects could cascade into other interdependent infrastructures, such as telecommunications, gas, and water.

Repeated studies, including by the Congressional EMP Commission and Lloyd's of London, have warned that the U.S. electric grid is vulnerable to damage from EMP events, that there is a significant risk, and that we need to be better prepared. H.R. 3410 takes commonsense steps to address the EMP threat. Specifically, this legislation compels the Department of Homeland Security to include EMP events in their national planning scenarios, conduct research to mitigate the consequences of an EMP event, develop a recommended strategy to protect critical infrastructure, and perform outreach to raise awareness of the threat.

I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 3410, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Franks), the sponsor of this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I will include in the Record a letter exchange between the Committee on Homeland Security and the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology.

Mr. Speaker, I want to conclude my remarks by once again thanking the gentlewoman from New York for all of her bipartisan work on the important matters before this committee, and I urge all Members to join me in supporting this bipartisan bill.

I yield back the balance of my time.

House of Representatives, Committee on Science, Space,

and Technology,

Washington, DC, December 1, 2014.

Hon. Michael McCaul,

Chairman, Committee on Homeland Security, Washington, DC.

Dear Chairman McCaul: I am writing to you concerning the

jurisdictional interest of the Committee on Science, Space,

and Technology in H.R. 3410, the ``Critical Infrastructure

Protection Act''. The bill contains provisions that fall

within the jurisdiction of the Committee on Science, Space,

and Technology.

I recognize and appreciate the desire to bring this

legislation before the House of Representatives in an

expeditious manner, and accordingly, I will waive further

consideration of this bill in Committee, notwithstanding any

provisions that fall within the jurisdiction of the Committee

on Science, Space, and Technology. This waiver, of course, is

conditional on our mutual understanding that agreeing to

waive consideration of this bill should not be construed as

waiving, reducing, or affecting the jurisdiction of the

Committee on Science, Space, and Technology.

This waiver is also given with the understanding that the

Committee on Science, Space, and Technology expressly

reserves its authority to seek conferees on any provision

within its jurisdiction during any House-Senate conference

that may be convened on this, or any similar legislation. I

ask for your commitment to support any request by the

Committee for conferees on H.R. 3410 as well as any similar

or related legislation.

I ask that a copy of this letter and your response be

placed in the Congressional Record during consideration of

this bill on the House floor.

Sincerely,

Lamar Smith,

Chairman.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the Critical Infrastructure Protection Act. Over the past 10 years, the United States has seen an unprecedented expansion of electronic communication and commerce that boosts our economy and facilitates entrepreneurship. However, this technology is also susceptible to new types of potential threats, such as Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP), that could dramatically disrupt electronic activity or severely damage our electrical grids.

Due to the potential of an EMP threat, I joined Congressman Trent Franks in introducing H.R. 3410--the Critical Infrastructure Protection Act. This legislation directs the Department of Homeland Security to enhance our nation's threat assessments of EMPs and to plan how to best protect and recover after an EMP occurs. The Critical Infrastructure Protection Act is the first step towards getting the U.S. closer to protecting ourselves from a potentially catastrophic nationwide blackout. It is my hope that this legislation will promote a national dialogue about the threat of EMPs and ensure that we are adequately prepared to protect our nation's critical infrastructure.

I want to thank Chairman McCaul for his important work on this legislation, as well as my dear friend, Congressman Trent Franks for his leadership. Additionally, I want to thank Frank Gaffney, the Founder and President of the Center for Security Policy, for his policy expertise and much needed efforts to educate and spread awareness regarding the potential threats posed by an Electromagnetic Pulse. I strongly support the passage of this important legislation.