Today, the House Homeland Security Committee approved Congresswoman Debbie Lesko’s bipartisan bill, H.R. 4402, the Inland Waters Security Review Act, to increase security of inland waters in the United States.

“Maritime security is a critical component of our Nation’s homeland security,” said Congresswoman Lesko (AZ-08). “We must consider our inland waterways as we conduct thorough security and threat assessments related to maritime security. I am grateful for all of my colleagues’ support today as we work to protect our Nation’s inland waters in a bipartisan manner.”

Background:

This bill requires the DHS Secretary to conduct an inland waters threat analysis that includes:

• current and potential criminal threats posed by individuals and groups,
• security challenges at U.S. inland waters ports,
• security mitigation efforts on inland waters,
• vulnerabilities related to cooperation between State, local, Tribal, and territorial law enforcement, or international agreements,
• and metrics and performance measures used by DHS to evaluate inland waters security. 

The analysis must consider technology needs and challenges, personnel needs and challenges, the roles and the need of State, local, Tribal, territorial, and international law enforcement, as well as the challenges posed by geography with respect to inland waters security.

The analysis will be reported in unclassified form, but some portions may be classified.

The Committees that would receive the report include, House Homeland, House Transportation and Infrastructure, Senate Homeland, Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation.