Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, on January 6, 2015, due to weather, I was unavoidably detained and missed recorded votes #1-2. Had I been present, on rollcall #1 (Quorum Call), I would have voted present and on rollcall #2, I would have voted for Nancy Pelosi for Speaker of the House.

Mr. Speaker, today, I rise to oppose H.R. 30, the highly irresponsible Save American Workers Act. This legislation weakens employees' access to health insurance, threatens employer based insurance coverage, and increases the budget deficit by 45.7 billion dollars due in part to the resulting increase in the number of uninsured.

I have always believed that access to quality healthcare is a right, not a privilege! The Affordable Care Act's current 30-hours per week threshold for classification as a full-time employee was designed to discourage employers from circumventing penalties that support the successful implementation of the law. Raising the threshold to 40 hours per week would limit access to employer-provided insurance coverage, and thereby impede a person's right to access healthcare.

Some businesses argue that the Affordable Care Act's classification of a full-time employee adversely impacts a business' hiring and its ability to offer other employee benefits. However, the facts just don't bear this out.

According to the San Francisco Federal Reserve, when the Affordable Care Act's provisions are fully implemented, the overall increase in the incidence of part-time work is likely to be ``small, on the order of a 1 to 2 percentage point increase or less.'' Other organizations' analyses have also found little evidence that health reform has increased part-time work. In fact, since President Obama took office, the overall full-time employment rate has consistently increased, so much so that the current U.S. unemployment rate is 5.8 percent.

The Republican majority is offering the American people a solution in search of a problem. This bill does not save American jobs, nor does it help the American worker. Rather, this bill relegates American workers to the second class status of the ``uninsured'' and in doing so denies them, what I believe, is their right to affordable, quality healthcare, which is something that all Americans deserve.

Mr. Speaker, I stand today to urge my colleagues to affirm the best of our traditions as a nation, rather than our worst partisan inclinations and oppose H.R. 5759, the Preventing Executive Overreach on Immigration Act of 2014. After several years of delay and obstruction on the matter of comprehensive immigration reform, President Obama acted to protect American immigrant families from the threat of forcible separation under immigration laws that are inadequate in the Twenty-First Century, by permitting parents living in the United States whose children are citizens or legal permanent residents to avoid deportation and receive authorization to work.

This legislation, H.R. 5759, exists only to allow the Republican- controlled House of Representatives to perpetuate the status quo that has done greater harm to immigrants who have been a part of our communities and criticize President Obama and the families and children he is seeking to protect. The enactment of this legislation would repudiate our commitment to the value of families.

H.R. 5759 would nullify and block implementation of the President's executive actions. If indeed the House majority were to act on the bipartisan Senate immigration reform bill. There would have been no need for the President to Act through his Executive Authority. We, in Congress, must legislate actually solutions. Congress has an obligation to pass commonsense immigration reform that offers meaningful solutions to the broken system.

It is also important to note that every president during the past 50 years has taken executive action on immigration and granted temporary immigration relief. Like his predecessors, this president has the legal authority to take these actions under the Constitution and the Immigration and Nationality Act. Unfortunately, the partisan divide in our nation's capital has created this legislation of discord.

The constituents of my district and across the United States understand that families are the foundation of our civil society. They want reform of our immigration laws that protects the interests of American immigrant families and supports the development of our nation and its people.

President Obama's executive action would provide protection to millions of immigrants, keep families together and expand our economy. I urge the rejection of this legislation. H.R. 5759 fails to uphold the ideals on which this nation was established. I urge the defeat of this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to stand with my colleagues today to honor the Chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), Congresswoman Marcia Fudge, my sorority sister and friend as she nears the completion of her term as the 23rd Chair of the CBC. Congresswoman Fudge is only the seventh woman to serve as the Chair of our Caucus and she has led the way in our fight to tackle difficult issues during her two-year term as Chairwoman.

She is an attorney, a businesswoman, former president of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., a former mayor and has been an outstanding leader of the conscience of the Congress.

Chairwoman Fudge has an exceptional record of achievements as the Chairwoman of the CBC. Under her leadership, the CBC has continued to be the voice of people of color and the underrepresented throughout our great nation and the world. Whether it was civil rights, voting rights, job creation, comprehensive immigration reform, health care, fighting poverty, or education, Chairwoman Fudge reached across the aisle to build coalitions to work on behalf of all people.

I want to personally thank Marcia Fudge for being not only a friend but also my mentor. She has been an invaluable resource to me and I truly appreciate her.

I agree with our former colleague, the great Shirley Chisholm who once said, ``You don't make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas.'' Chairwoman Fudge embodies this sentiment as the leader of the CBC.

I look forward to working with Congresswoman Fudge in the future and the rest of my Colleagues in the CBC during the 114th Congress as we continue to be the conscience of the Congress.

Mr. Speaker, I stand with my colleagues, Democrats and Republicans, to commend the Honorable John D. Dingell, Jr., Dean of the House of Representatives, on his lifetime of service to the American people.

The people of his district in Michigan believed in him have sent him to Capitol Hill in a record twenty-nine consecutive elections, which is 59 years in this august body.

On issue after issue, Congressman Dingell was a leader in the effort to secure civil rights for all Americans, to protect the quality of our air and water, to allow children and older Americans to afford health care, to protect the rights of our workers to bargain collectively for fair wages and benefits, to support the auto industry and the Great Lakes and to build the manufacturing sector of our economy. He has impacted virtually every piece of legislation to be signed into law during the last half century, including the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the Affordable Care Act.

A veteran of the Second World War, who was awarded nation's highest civilian honor--the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama in 2014, Congressman Dingell remained committed to supporting the men and women of our armed forces, both on the field of battle and on their return home to the United States.

History will record his dedication to the belief that every American should have the ability to access comprehensive health care at an affordable cost. Continuing a tradition started by his father, Congressman John D. Dingell, Sr., every session of Congress he introduced a bill to provide for universal health care. With the Affordable Care Act, of which Congressman Dingell was a proud co- sponsor, he achieved that high purpose to which he dedicated himself.

Congressman Dingell's contribution to this institution will remain forever an example of public service in the public interest. When we honor him, we honor our shared faith in the promise of the American Dream and our commitment to extend the blessing of freedom to the generations who will follow us.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Senate amendment to H.R. 2952.

As my ranking member, Mr. Thompson, has said, for the Department of Homeland Security to be effective in its cybersecurity mission, it must have a workforce in place to meet this challenge. A longstanding interest of mine has been how best to help DHS meet its cyber workforce needs.

To that end, I have authored legislation that the committee unanimously approved in October to help ensure that DHS has the ``boots on the ground'' it needs to meet its diverse cybersecurity mission.

I would like to thank Chairman Meehan for the support you have shown for my efforts and the spirit of collaboration that you have shown.

This legislation requires DHS to develop and issue a comprehensive workforce strategy for the Department's cybersecurity missions. The Department is required to develop a 5-year implementation plan for that strategy and a 10-year projection of the cybersecurity workforce needs of the Department.

Before developing a strategy and implementation plan, it is important that DHS conduct a workforce assessment to get a sense of the readiness and capacity of the Department's cyber workforce.

It is also important that the Department determine where these positions are located within the Department and whether these positions are filled by permanent employees, independent contractors, detailees from other Federal agencies, or are vacant.

The workforce assessment required under this bill requires DHS to do just that.

Finally, I am glad that it directs DHS to develop a plan to establish a cybersecurity fellowship program under which talented undergraduates and doctoral candidates who sign on to work for the Department for an agreed-upon period would be provided tuition assistance.

Establishment of just such a program could help encourage students to come to work for the government in this vital arena.

I urge all of my colleagues to vote for the Senate amendment to H.R. 2952.

Mr. Speaker, again, I thank the ranking member for yielding me the time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of S. 2519, the National Cybersecurity Protection Act of 2014. We have worked long and hard to develop and describe how DHS can best accomplish its complex cybersecurity mission. I am pleased that our bipartisan and bicameral negotiations have been fruitful and look forward to the progress that the Department can make next year.

In closing, I would like to express what an honor it has been to serve under the leadership of Ranking Member Thompson, Chairman McCaul, and alongside Chairman Meehan in service to the homeland security mission of our Nation.

I look forward to our continued collaboration as I move to my new assignment on the Energy and Commerce Committee in the 114th Congress.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the distinguished ranking member from the District of Columbia, Ms. Holmes Norton, for yielding me this time, and I want to thank the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Chaffetz) for his leadership on these very important matters of homeland security.

I rise today in support of S. 1691, and I am pleased that today we are considering legislation containing language I introduced earlier this year to address fundamental cyber workforce challenges at the Department of Homeland Security. Important parts of my bipartisan bill, H.R. 3107, the Homeland Security Cybersecurity Boots-on-the-Ground Act, are included in the measure we are considering today.

The cyber workforce language included in S. 1691 generally does two important things. First, it grants special hiring authority to DHS to bring on board topnotch cyber recruits. The Department desperately needs a more flexible hiring process with incentives to secure talent in today's highly competitive cyber skills market. Second, it requires the Secretary of the Department to assess its cyber workforce to give Congress and the Office of Personnel Management a clearer picture of the needs and challenges that DHS faces in carrying out its important cyber mission in helping protect both the dot-gov and dot-com arenas.

Importantly, the bill also directs the Comptroller General to analyze, monitor, and report on the implementation of DHS cybersecurity workforce measures.

Today, many of the Department's top cyber positions are filled by nonpermanent contractors, and DHS reports having difficulty competing with other executive branch agencies and the private sector for talent. In an effort to address DHS's cyber workforce challenges, the Department asked the Homeland Security Advisory Committee to assemble a task force on cyber skills to provide recommendations on the best ways DHS can foster the development of a national cybersecurity workforce and DHS can improve its capability to recruit and retain cybersecurity talent.

The legislation I introduced sought to address a number of the task force's key recommendations, as does this bill, S. 1691. Cybersecurity is a complex mission for the Department and requires a wide range of talent at all levels. Given the urgent nature of the DHS' recruitment efforts, it is essential the Department have at its disposal certain hiring authorities and training procedures in place.

Before I close, I would like to acknowledge that there is a lot of interest on our side of the aisle to make progress on cybersecurity. Hopefully, in the coming days, old jurisdictional squabbles can be laid aside for the betterment of the country, as was done on this bill, and again, the Oversight Committee can work with the Homeland Security Committee to bring forth critical cybersecurity legislation. We need to put in place legislation to advance the ball with respect to protecting Federal civilian networks and codifying DHS' role.

Mr. Speaker, this week, I voted in support of H.R. 5739, the No Social Security for Nazis Act, of which I am proud original co sponsor.

For decades now individuals who have been identified as Nazi war criminals have accessed their Social Security benefits, by means of a loophole in the Social Security Act. This loophole allowed those who were denaturalized, or those who voluntarily renounced their United States' citizenship, and left the country to avoid formal deportation proceedings, to continue receiving Social Security benefits.

H.R. 5739 will close the loophole by amending the law to stop Social Security benefit payments to those denaturalized due to participation in Nazi persecutions or those who voluntarily renounced their citizenship as part of a settlement with the Attorney General related to their participation in Nazi persecution.

Our country and the world will never forget the atrocities committed by the Nazi regime against millions of Jews and other targeted groups during World War II, nor should the perpetrators of these atrocities be allowed to continue to collect Social Security benefits due to a loophole in the law.

My district in Brooklyn, New York, which is the Ninth Congressional District of New York, is home to one of the largest orthodox Jewish populations in the country as well as being home to the second largest Jewish population in the nation overall. I know that my constituents would feel reassured to know that this loophole has been closed.

So, on behalf of my Jewish constituents and of all Americans, I want to thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle who joined me in supporting H.R. 5739, the No Social Security for Nazis Act.

Mr. Speaker, today I rise to acknowledge World AIDS Day, 2014.

Today, more than 35 million people worldwide are living with HIV/ AIDS. Of the 35 million, 1.2 million are in the United States and almost 1 in 7 Americans--that's 14 percent--are unaware of their infection.

It grieves me to know that Brooklyn has earned the dubious distinction as an HIV/AIDS epicenter for African-Americans in NYC. Nearly 29,000 Brooklyn residents were living with HIV/AIDS as of June 30, 2013. Over 30 percent of new HIV diagnoses in the first half of 2013 were made concurrent with AIDS diagnoses and years after infection, when HIV was already causing illness. And surveys suggest that 40 percent of Brooklyn adults have yet to receive an HIV test.

Though there have been many successes in the treatment of the disease, given the grim statistics that I just noted, we cannot rest on our successes. It is imperative that we continue to push forth policies, initiatives, and legislation that support HIV/AIDS research and programs, both domestically and globally. We

also must continue to significantly fund HIV/AIDS research and programs.

One such program that benefits from HIV/AIDS funding is SUNY Downstate's HIV Center for Women and Children, which is located in my district--the 9th Congressional District of New York. The center provides: HIV/AIDS clinical support, mental health assistance, psychosocial support, educational outreach, research--and the all important testing program--and in doing so helps stop the transmission of HIV/AIDS in my district.

We must continue to fight on behalf of those who need to access life saving research and programs. The manner in which we as a nation address HIV/AIDS will determine the fate of the next generation of Americans. Let's continue to take a stand against the spread of HIV/

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

I rise in support of H.R. 5629, the Strengthening Domestic Nuclear Security Act of 2014.

The bill under consideration today would essentially codify important existing authorities and programs within the Department of Homeland Security's Domestic Nuclear Detection Office, or DNDO as it is known.

Congress has long emphasized the need to detect and interdict smuggled nuclear radiological material before it enters the United States, funding investments in nuclear detection domestically and abroad.

Since 2001, the Department of Homeland Security has adopted a strategy of securing the border and ports through the use of radiation portal monitors and nonintrusive imaging equipment. Under the leadership of Dr. Huban Gowadia, DNDO leads the Department's efforts at developing, testing, and evaluating next-generation detection equipment.

For the record, this measure is being considered today outside regular order, without any formal legislative action taken on it in committee. Given that we are in the waning days of the 113th Congress, I support bypassing regular order so that the House is afforded the opportunity to consider this legislation. The timing is important, as the Secretary is expected to transmit to Congress analysis about how efforts at addressing chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threats could be streamlined as part of the ``unity of effort'' campaign.

I would note that in advance of the introduction of H.R. 5629, the subcommittee on which I serve as ranking member did conduct an oversight hearing in July where we received wide-ranging testimony about DNDO's programs and activities from the Department and the Government Accountability Office. Testimony from GAO underscored DNDO's historical challenges with the Advanced Spectroscopic Portal, or ASP, program.

Back in 2006, one of the urgent, initial activities of DNDO when it was stood up was the development and placement of technology to detect illicit nuclear materials and devices that could be shipped in cargo entering the United States. The plan was for advanced spectroscopic portals to be installed at all U.S. ports and selected border crossings to screen cargo shipments for nuclear materials. That acquisition turned out to be a debacle, with DNDO moving forward on acquisition decisions well before the technology had been demonstrated to live up to its promise. Those missteps cost taxpayers billions of dollars. Subsequently, the ASP program was canceled.

The current DNDO leadership and, for that matter, DHS leadership seem to have taken these tough lessons to heart and put in place some significant new processes and controls in the acquisitions process to help avoid another such debacle.

One of the important features of this bill is the authorization of the Securing the Cities program. This program represents a real success for DNDO. Under the Securing the Cities program, DNDO works with local State, city, and tribal leaders to bolster technical nuclear detection capabilities, nuclear forensic efforts, and coordination of nonconventional threats. As a New Yorker, I have special interest in this program, which has done so much to help keep my city secure from nonconventional terrorist threats.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the chairman for his bipartisan approach in developing this language and look forward to working with him in the future on this important program.

I would like to take a moment to acknowledge my partner on this subcommittee, the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Meehan). You have been a great collaborator and friend to me on this committee. Together, we have amassed a record of bipartisanship to be proud of, particularly in the area of cybersecurity. I wish you well in all of your future endeavors, and I thank you once again.

With that, Mr. Speaker, I urge support for H.R. 5629, the Strengthening Domestic Nuclear Security Act of 2014, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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.

Hands up, don't shoot.

I thank my colleague and friend, Mr. Jeffries of Brooklyn, New York, for his tremendous leadership both here in Washington, D.C., and at home in New York.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to join my colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus to discuss being black in America and what the injustice in Ferguson, Missouri, says about where we are and where we need to go as a civil society.

I first want to, once again, offer my condolences to the family of Michael Brown, whose efforts to secure justice on behalf of their son were undermined by the decision of the grand jury. The killing of Michael Brown and attacks by the Ferguson Police Department on protesters demonstrate an assumption that young women and men who are African American are inherently suspicious--a false assumption with deadly consequences.

So where do we go from here? We must not allow this false assumption to prevail in our Nation, in our society. We cannot and will not accept the devaluation of African American lives. We have seen this scenario play out too many times in recent years, even in my hometown in Brooklyn, New York, where we are still reeling from the recent killing of Akai Gurley, an unarmed young man shot by a probationary New York City police officer. This killing comes on the heels of the homicide by a choke hold of Eric Garner on Staten Island, again, in New York City.

Mr. Speaker, it is deeply disappointing that as we observe the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 we are still trying to fulfill the promise of the 14th Amendment, of equal protection under the law. While the Civil Rights Act of 1964 transformed our Nation by prohibiting discrimination based on race, religion, color, sex, and national origin at work, in schools, and in other public facilities, we still must transform the perception, biases, and prejudices that some people still carry with them like luggage from generations past.

The incidents in Ferguson and cities across this Nation remind us that communities that have been disproportionately and unjustly targeted by police departments demand recognition of their humanity. Young people of color refuse to live in a democratic society in a state of fear, and we have an obligation as a nation to rid ourselves of the scourge of racially biased, state-sanctioned terrorism.

I fully support the steps announced today by the Obama administration to strengthen community policing and fortify the trust that must exist between law enforcement officers and the communities they serve. I have been a vocal advocate for better relations between the community and law enforcement community. Given the police officers' sole mission is to serve and protect the people with dignity, integrity, and respect, we must focus on achieving that mission. I pledge to work with my constituents, the Obama administration, my colleagues, and officials across this country--especially in New York City--to restore public trust and to establish a more enlightened policing strategy, and to prevent such incidents in the future.

So, again, I would like to thank Mr. Jeffries for his leadership. I want to thank the CBC, the conscience of the Congress, for holding this timely Special Order. To all Americans who are disturbed by the demonstrations that are taking place across this Nation, I want you to remember these four words: no justice, no peace.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 3696, the National Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure Protection Act of 2014, and I am pleased to be here today as an original cosponsor of this legislation.

This bipartisan legislation gives the Department of Homeland Security the legislative authority it needs to carry out its cyber mission and to help protect our Nation's critical infrastructure from cyber attacks and intrusions.

The approach taken in this bill is very much in line with DHS' approach since 2007, when President Bush designated the Department as the lead Federal civilian agency for cybersecurity.

This is a dual mission. DHS is responsible for working with Federal civilian agencies to protect Federal IT networks and the dot-gov domain. At the same time, DHS is responsible for effectively partnering with the private sector to raise its level of cyber hygiene and foster greater cybersecurity.

I am pleased that H.R. 3696 authorizes the 247 operations of the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center, also referred to as NCCIC. The NCCIC has been the epicenter for information sharing about the activities of cyberterrorists and criminals and the reporting of cyber incidents by critical infrastructure owners and operators.

Additionally, the bill codifies ongoing efforts to raise the level of cybersecurity within critical infrastructure sectors. Specifically, it authorizes the development and implementation, in coordination with the private sector, of voluntary risk-based security standards.

This provision essentially codifies the process that the National Institute of Standards and Technology, also known as NIST, undertook pursuant to an executive order that President Obama issued in February of 2013.

Under the approach taken in this bill, we are asking business and government to come together to find an adaptable and cooperative cybersecurity framework, not an off-the-shelf or check-the-box solution, to raise the level of cybersecurity across the Nation.

I am pleased that the measured and targeted approach taken to working with the private sector was supported by the American Civil Liberties Union, which called our bill ``pro-security and pro-privacy.''

The President said it best:

It is the policy of the United States to enhance the

security and resilience of the Nation's critical

infrastructure and to maintain a cyber environment that

encourages efficiency, innovation, and economic prosperity

while promoting safety, security, business confidentiality,

privacy, and civil liberties.

While I am also pleased about all we do with respect to the Department's mission to work with the private sector on cybersecurity, I am a bit disappointed that key language that clarifies DHS' roles with respect to other Federal agencies and protection of the dot-gov domain is not in the bill before you today.

Unfortunately, the striking of these provisions appears to have been the price the Committee on Homeland Security had to pay to get this important legislation to the floor.

It seems that the provisions that would have given DHS specific authority to respond in a more timely manner to Federal network breaches were opposed by another committee chairman. Unfortunately, that chairman has willfully chosen to ignore reality.

The reality is that since 2008, DHS has assumed responsibility for working with agencies to protect the dot-gov domain, not the Office of Management and Budget.

It is my hope that, as this legislation moves through the legislative process, there will be progress on efforts to ensure that the law reflects this reality.

With that, Mr. Speaker, I urge passage of H.R. 3696, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Payne).

I yield the gentleman an additional 1 minute.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Langevin), the cochair of the House Cybersecurity Caucus.

(Mr. LANGEVIN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. Speaker, I have no more speakers. If the gentleman from Texas has no more speakers, then, in closing, I urge the passage of H.R. 3696. It is legislation that will enhance DHS' ability to execute its cybersecurity mission. I am particularly pleased that it includes language that I authored to help ensure that DHS has the cyber workforce it needs to execute that mission.

I would like to thank Chairman McCaul and Ranking Member Thompson, as well as the subcommittee chair, Mr. Meehan, for their leadership and their vision, and for their understanding that this is something that keeps us up at night, that this is something that this body must move forward to address--that this is a 21st century threat for which we cannot sit idly by and do nothing about. Their leadership on H.R. 3696 and on the suite of cyber legislation on the floor today speaks volumes to moving us in the right direction.

With that, Mr. Speaker, I urge the passage of H.R. 3696, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 2952, the Critical Infrastructure Research and Development Advancement Act, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Meehan), the chairman of the Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Security Technologies Subcommittee, for introducing this very vital legislation. I appreciate him working with me and the rest of the committee to bring a thoughtful and bipartisan bill to the floor today.

In May, the Department of Justice released the names of five members of the Chinese People's Liberation Army that are suspected of carrying out cyber attacks against American companies for over 8 years. These indictments underscore the significant cyber vulnerabilities that the Department of Homeland Security works to identify and to thwart.

Some of the Department's most important efforts are targeted at protecting our critical infrastructure systems, such as communication systems and the electric grid. These systems have complex technological components that Americans expect will function without a glitch.

To carry out this mission, DHS is constantly researching and developing new technologies and defenses to help protect our infrastructure. This R&D is extremely important to the safety of American infrastructure.

At the same time, Congress must do proper oversight to ensure that it is done in an effective and efficient and focused way. That is why I cosponsored this act, which requires DHS to have a research and development strategy for critical infrastructure protection. This strategy is to be focused on identifying the most immediate threats and then developing a comprehensive set of initiatives to address them. It directs DHS to employ public-private partnerships, intragovernmental collaboration, University Centers for Excellence, and national laboratory technology transfers to make sure that DHS is working with state-of-the-art researchers and facilities. This strategy will help DHS keep ahead of the rapidly evolving cybersecurity attack that we hear about each and every day.

I am confident that, with the focused measures set forth in this bill and increased attention to the importance of science and technology in our antiterrorism efforts, we can be better equipped to defend America's critical infrastructure.

Mr. Speaker, cyberterrorists and cyber criminals are constantly innovating. We must do more to protect against these threats and foster great resilience of critical infrastructure networks to such threats. H.R. 2952 will make sure that we fight the new threats of this era with the most advanced technology solutions.

I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting H.R. 2952, the CIRDA Act, and I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Meehan) for making it possible for us to have this on the floor today and to bring this new piece of legislation to fruition.

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