HR 3224 Introduced
WMD Office Extension
Last month, Rep D’Esposito (R,NY) introduced HR 3224, the Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Extension Act of 2023. The bill would extend the current authorization of the DHS CWMD Office for seven years. There is no new funding authorized in this legislation.
Extension
Section 2(a)(1) of the bill would amend 6 USC 591(e) by changing the Office’s termination date (which is currently December 31st, 2023) to “seven years after the date of the enactment of the Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Extension Act of 2023”.
Section 2(a)(2) exempts both the provisions of 6 USC 597 and 6 USC 597a from being affected by the revised termination date. This was necessary because, while both the Chief Medical Officer and the medical countermeasures program are part of the CWMD Office, they were created independently of the Office and their authorization contained no automatic termination provisions. If the CWMD Office were terminated, these programs would continue to function and DHS would need to find a new organizational home for them.
Reports
Section 2(b) of the bill would require two different reports to Congress. The first report would be made by the CWMD Office and it would address “an employee engagement action plan and strategy to continuously improve morale within the Office.” The second report would be prepared by the Government Accounting Office. It would address:
The efforts of the Office to prioritize the programs and activities that carry out the mission of the Office, including research and development.
The consistency and effectiveness of the Office’s stakeholder coordination across the mission of the Department, including operational and support components of the Department and State and local entities.
The efforts of the Office to manage and coordinate the lifecycle of research and development within the Office and with other components of the Department, including the Science and Technology Directorate.
Moving Forward
On May 17th, the House Homeland Security Committee considered HR 3224 during a business meeting. The bill was adopted by a voice vote without amendment. The bill will likely be considered by the full House, perhaps before the summer recess, under the suspension of the rules process. This will mean limited debate and no floor amendments. It will almost certainly pass with strong bipartisan support.
Commentary
It has always seemed odd to be that the CWMD Office has no linkage to the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program. True, chemical weapons are only a small part of the CWMD’s purview, but they are a part. The CFATS program is in CISA and it is a regulatory program, so it definitely does not fit directly into the CWMD Office profile, but there ought to be some formal coordination linkage between the two programs.
Similarly, the S&T Directorate’s Chemical Security Analysis Center performs completely different functions than the CWMD Office, but their chemical safety research compliments the focus of the CWMD Office. There should be a formal coordination of efforts between the two organizations. And this bill would have been a good place to require the three offices to work together, but now that the bill is out of Committee and is unlikely to be amendable on the floor of the House.