Securing the Cities Improvement Act

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1568, the bipartisan Moving Americans Privacy Protection Act.

I believe that privacy is something we are going to be discussing on this floor for the next 10 years. We are trying to catch up to the electronics that exist in our lives, and we want to make sure that people are all respected.

We know protecting privacy is a difficult and constantly evolving challenge. This is especially true in our modern world. Privacy is deeply important for all Americans, particularly our servicemembers abroad. Unfortunately, our troops are often victims of identity theft.

For security purposes, U.S. Customs and Border Protection requires manifest sheets to document the cargo of incoming vessels. The Moving Americans Privacy Protection Act will ensure that personal data on cargo manifests cannot be abused.

I am proud to co-lead this crucial and commonsense measure with the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Waltz).

In recent years, manifest data has been mistakenly exposed, enabling identity theft, credit card fraud, and unwanted solicitations. Our plan will protect Americans from having their personal information compromised.

We must make sure information like names, addresses, Social Security numbers, and passport numbers can be removed from cargo manifests before they are disclosed. This is a no-brainer. We are talking about protecting people's privacy, including servicemembers and their families serving abroad.

Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record two letters of support for the Moving Americans Privacy Protection Act: the first is from the New Jersey Warehouse and Movers Association; the second is from the American Trucking Associations and a coalition of supportive organizations.

New Jersey Warehouse &

Movers Association

September 11, 2023.

Hon. Bill Pascrell,

Washington, DC.

Representative Pascrell: As the leader of the New Jersey

Warehouse & Movers Association, I have the privilege of

representing moving and storage companies located across the

Garden State. Thank you for your continued leadership,

especially as a member of the US House Ways & Means

Committee.

Our members especially thank you for introducing, along

with Representative Mike Walz, the bipartisan Moving

Americans Privacy Protection Act (``MAPPA'' / HR 1568). As

you know, this legislation would help protect the privacy and

personally identifiable information (PII) of American

servicemembers, federal employees, private sector workers,

and their families who are returning to the United States

after living abroad.

With multiple defense and government installations, more

than a dozen Fortune 500 corporate headquarters, globally

recognized colleges and universities, and its status as a

center for international trade, New Jersey residents

frequently move overseas and then return to the US. This

exchange plays an important role in our state's continued

economic growth, and the moving industry is proud to support

these individuals and their families. Unfortunately, current

government policy regarding the security of their PII

unwittingly places them at risk of identity theft, financiat

fraud, and other crimes. The MAPPA would change this policy

and require US Customs to remove the PII contained in vessel

manifests from trade data that is provided to sale.

Passage of legislation accomplishing the goal of the MAPPA

has been a long-standing priority of the moving industry. We

are thankful for introducing identical legislation in the

House (HR 1568) and the Senate (S 758). The Senate passed S

758 in March 2023, making House approval the only step

necessary before the legislation goes to the White House for

the President's signature.

As such, the New Jersey moving industry asks you to contact

House Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Richard Neal

and urge him to support the Committee, including S 758 as

passed by the Senate in the next available markup, to approve

the legislation without amendment, and for the House to

consider the legislation under suspension of the rules. We

also understand that Rep. Waltz is testifying in support of

MAPPA during the Ways and Means Committee's ``Member Day''

hearing on September 14, 2023--joint testimony in support of

the legislation or a letter of support for the legislation

submitted for the hearing's record would be appreciated as we

all work to enact this necessary and commonsense legislation.

Thank you again for your leadership on this important

issue.

May 24, 2023.

Hon. Jason Smith,

Chairman, Committee on Ways and Means,

Washington, DC.

Hon. Adrian Smith,

Chairman, Subcommittee on Trade, Committee on Ways and Means,

Washington, DC.

Hon. Richard Neal,

Ranking Member, Committee on Ways and Means, Washington, DC.

Hon. Earl Blumenauer,

Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Trade, Committee on Ways and

Means, Washington, DC.

Dear Chairman J. Smith, Ranking Member Neal, Chairman A.

Smith, and Ranking Member Blumenauer: Our organizations

respectfully request Committee sign off for House

consideration--under suspension of the rules as a stand-alone

bill--the Moving Americans Privacy Protection Act (S. 758),

as passed by the Senate on March 9, 2023.

The legislation addresses a specific and unique issue and

helps protect the sensitive personal data of servicemembers,

federal employees, private sector workers. and families who

are returning to the United States after living abroad. S.

758 was introduced on a bipartisan basis by Senators Daines,

Peters, Stabenow, and Marshall and passed the Senate by voice

vote. It has a bipartisan House companion (H.R. 1568)

introduced by Representatives Waltz and Pascrell. The

legislation is identical to the Moving Americans Privacy

Protection Act (115th--H.R. 4403), which in 2018 the Ways &

Means Committee reported out by voice vote, followed by House

passage under the suspension calendar. The Congressional

Budget Office and Joint Tax Committee have determined a

``zero'' score for the legislation.

Each year, the U.S. military, federal departments, and

private sector organizations relocate tens of thousands of

Americans back home to the U.S. after posting overseas. Other

Americans return home after time abroad for personal reasons.

When shipping their personal household goods to the U.S.,

these individuals must include elements of Personally

Identifiable Information

(PII) on shipping forms which are made part of vessel

manifests. The PII often contains Social Security numbers,

Passport numbers, home addresses, and other sensitive data.

Currently U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is

required to make all commercial information from vessel

manifests--often capturing the sensitive PII of returning

American citizens--available to data brokers who package and

resell this data throughout their subscriber network. Without

concrete action to protect the PII, normally held under

strict security by the U.S. Government, these elements can be

exposed, placing Americans at risk of identity theft,

financial fraud, and other abuses of their data.

The Moving Americans Privacy Protection Act helps protect

Americans from this risk by ensuring PII is removed from

manifests prior to CBP providing and selling the commercial

manifest information to data brokers. While it does not amend

other provisions of the Tariff Act or in any other way modify

Customs, authorities or trade policy, it does remove the U.S.

Government from making sensitive PII of servicemembers and

other Americans available to potential criminals as citizens

move back home to the United States.

Given the focused nature of this legislation and increase

in identity theft crimes in recent years, we urge the

Committee to agree to direct House consideration of the

Senate-passed version of the Moving Americans Privacy

Protection Act (S. 758) as a stand-alone bill under

suspension of the rules.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

American Trucking Associations,

International Association of Movers,

Military Officers Association of America,

Senior Executives Association,

Worldwide ERC.

Mr. Speaker, I strongly encourage my colleagues to support this commonsense measure today.

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

Mr. Speaker, protecting the privacy of the American people must be our priority. I strongly urge my colleagues to support this commonsense measure.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased that we are here today to consider my bill, H.R. 4403, the Securing the Cities Improvement Act.

My bill will help cities build and maintain their security capabilities against nuclear or radiological threats.

While I will emphasize the critical nature of my bill, its effectiveness

hinges upon the reauthorization of the DHS Office of Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction, CWMD.

Without CWMD, the Securing the Cities program will cease to operate. Securing the Cities, also called STC, was launched by the Department of Homeland Security in fiscal year 2007 as a pilot program to support New York City, Jersey City, and Newark, New Jersey, in detecting and preventing nuclear or radiological threats.

Today, the STC program provides 14 local governments, including my hometown of New Orleans, with detection equipment, training, exercise support, operational and technical support, subject matter expertise, and programmatic support.

STC's work in New Orleans has supported important events such as Mardi Gras, which is a very special and joyous time in my hometown. As you know, we will have the Super Bowl next year. This will have a critical impact on its safety and delivering joy to the people of our country and our world.

However, STC is limited to high-risk urban areas designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency under the Urban Area Security Initiative, or UASI, program.

Linking STC and UASI together can create uncertainty for local governments participating in the program, as the composition of jurisdictions in the UASI program can fluctuate from one year to the next.

To ensure stability within the STC program and maintain partnerships with at-risk cities, I introduced the Securing the Cities Improvement Act. My legislation would allow CWMD to determine which cities to partner with for the STC program based on the jurisdiction's capability and capacity to prepare for and respond to threats of vulnerabilities against terrorist attacks and other high-consequence events utilizing nuclear or other radiological materials.

It would also establish performance metrics and milestones for the STC program and monitor expenditures for the program.

Furthermore, the legislation requires DHS to provide a report to Congress regarding participation in the STC program, the establishment of metrics and milestones for the program, and any proposed modifications for this program.

The bill is a commonsense measure, one that will ensure that our cities are protected from nuclear or radiological threats.

Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to join me in supporting H.R. 4403, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 4403 is important for sustaining local jurisdictions' capabilities to counter chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threats.

Without the support of programs like STC, addressing and mitigating threats could become more difficult or cease to exist altogether, which would jeopardize the safety and well-being of every individual residing in our country.

Passage of this legislation is vital to maintaining our preparedness and ensuring the security of the Nation against the evolving challenges posed by terrorist attacks and other high-consequence events that utilize nuclear or radiological materials.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my House colleagues to support H.R. 4403, and I thank Chairman Green for his support in this measure.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1568) to amend the Tariff Act of 1930 to protect personally identifiable information, and for other purposes, as amended.

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.

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

Mr. Speaker, the legislation before us today, the Moving Americans Privacy Protection Act, takes an important step to protect the privacy of all Americans, especially our veterans and servicemembers returning from overseas. It requires Customs and Border Protection to remove personally identifiable information from any shipping manifest before CBP makes the manifest information available to the public.

Under current law, Customs and Border Protection is required to make certain shipping manifest information available for public disclosure. Unfortunately, there is no requirement to ensure these manifests do not contain Americans' personal information. Instead, U.S. citizens returning home from military postings or job opportunities abroad are expected to navigate a complicated and bureaucratic system--that often experiences significant delays, I might add--to request that any personal information be removed from manifests to protect their identity from fraudsters and scammers.

Our brave men and women in uniform, as well as Americans whose employers or family commitments have required them to relocate overseas, already face numerous hurdles when they return home. Ensuring U.S. Customs and Border Protection proactively removes this data from manifests is a simple, straightforward, and actually long overdue step to protect their identities.

I applaud Representatives Michael Waltz and Bill Pascrell for their leadership on this legislation and Senators Daines, Stabenow, and Peters for leading this effort in the Senate. I urge my colleagues in the House of Representatives to follow the Ways and Means Committee's lead and unanimously pass this bipartisan legislation.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Waltz), an expert on this topic.

Mr. Speaker, my colleagues have sufficiently described the details of this bill, why we need to do it, and that we should do it immediately.

I certainly urge my colleagues to support it so that we can get this done, especially to assist our men and women in uniform.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of my bill, H.R. 1568, the Moving Americans Privacy Protection Act.

This bipartisan, bicameral bill will require U.S. Customs and Border Protection, CBP, to remove personally identifiable information, including Social Security and passport numbers, from cargo manifests before they are disclosed to the public.

Currently, CBP requires manifest sheets, which include PII, in order to disclose and document the cargo of incoming vessels for customs and security purposes. Now, originally, the intent of this requirement was to increase competition. It was to facilitate better public analysis of import trends. It was to allow port authorities and transportation companies to more easily identify potential customers and changes in their industry.

Like many things we do here, it had a viable and good intent. However, in recent years, the PII of relocating individuals has, again, been publicly released. That has enabled identity theft. It has enabled credit card fraud and unwanted solicitations.

Importantly, from a national security standpoint, the disclosure allows our adversaries, from terrorist organizations to foreign intelligence organizations of our adversaries like China, Russia, and Iran, to easily access the PII of our servicemembers and their families as they move around the globe to keep this great Nation free.

The personal identification, Mr. Speaker, of every American should be safe and secure, but due to the current public disclosure of cargo manifests, our servicemembers and their families are experiencing a higher risk of identity theft, fraud, and targeting as they move abroad in service of our Nation.

It is critical that we take the necessary steps to protect them from this dangerous and fraudulent activity. The Moving Americans Privacy Protection Act is essential to protect the private information not only of our servicemembers but of all Americans.

I thank Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith, Democrat co-lead, Representative Pascrell, and particularly the Ways and Means staff for their hard work and working with my team to move this bill through committee and to the full House for consideration.

I look forward to passage by the full House. I encourage my colleagues to support this legislation, and I look forward to working with Senator Daines, in particular, in the Senate to get this important bill signed into law.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4403) to amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to make improvements to the Securing the Cities program, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on H.R. 4403.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 4403. Since 2007, DHS has operated the Securing the Cities program to help cities prepare for and respond to nuclear or radiological threats.

H.R. 4403, the Securing the Cities Improvement Act will remove the requirement for a jurisdiction to be designated as a high-risk urban area by FEMA, diminishing the uncertainty for cities to be removed from the STC program.

Additionally, this legislation will provide transparency by requiring the department to establish performance metrics and milestones for the STC program to track its performance and monitor its expenditures.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Carter for his work on this. I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 4430, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I, again, urge my colleagues to support H.R. 4403. I thank Mr. Carter, the gentleman from Louisiana, for his excellent work on this, and I yield back the balance of my time.