DHS Field Engagement Accountability Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. BACON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Louisiana and I thank the gentlewoman from New York for their leadership today.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the bill, H.R. 504, that I authored. It is called the DHS Field Engagement Accountability Act.

The purpose of this legislation is to provide transparency, predictability, and technology improvements to the 79 State and locally owned fusion centers across the United States. This bill fixes several shortfalls that were identified by recent inspection findings.

I was able to visit the Nebraska Information Analysis Center, known as NIAC, my home State's fusion center, in January of this last year. The NIAC was established in 2007 and serves as a critical information- sharing conduit between the State of Nebraska and the Federal Government to the benefit of all 93 counties in Nebraska.

While the NIAC currently has outside support from DHS, not all fusion centers are in the same situation throughout our country, and that needs to be fixed. To address this shortfall, H.R. 504 requires the Department to engage an engagement strategy for how to best coordinate information sharing, technology, and personnel resources with fusion centers. Additionally, the bill requires DHS to develop clear and robust performance metrics for the personnel assigned to fusion centers to provide needed accountability.

In addition to personnel, DHS also provides fusion centers with access to databases and information-sharing programs for classified and sensitive information. H.R. 504 includes several provisions to address improvements in training and technology needed for these systems, including a requirement that DHS components share appropriate intelligence products with fusion centers.

The sharing of counterterrorism and other homeland security information with State and local officials is vital in our efforts to protect the homeland. In the past few years, there have been significant improvements in DHS' support for key stakeholders. The DHS Field Engagement Accountability Act builds on this progress by holding DHS more accountable for supporting fusion centers and making the improvements needed to truly utilize them as a resource for the Federal Government.

This is a commonsense bill that passed the House last Congress. With another strong showing of bipartisan support from the House, I am confident that we will be able to work with our colleagues in the other Chamber to enact this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

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