§474 Homeland security critical domain research and development

Summary

The Secretary of Homeland Security can do research to find which parts of the U.S. economy are most important for economic and homeland security and to check how much harm could happen if those parts are disrupted, corrupted, or exploited. The research must include a risk check for each important area. It will look at things like supply chain weakness and strength, foreign production and methods, harmful outside actors, who owns assets, how companies are linked, and how these things make a domain risky. For the highest-risk areas, the Secretary may do deeper studies that describe the infrastructure and processes, study industry performance now and in the future, check if supplies come from only a few places or one region, see if other industries could make needed goods and what stops them from doing so, test performance under normal and crisis conditions, name what is needed to make supply chains resilient, and consider the effects of industry consolidation, including foreign mergers or moves. The Secretary may work with federal and state agencies and private groups. Starting one year after December 27, 2021 (December 27, 2022), the Secretary must publish a report with findings and recommendations and update it each year through 2026. Within 90 days after each report, the Secretary must send the report and a description of planned or completed actions to the House Committee on Homeland Security and the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. The law defines “United States critical domains for economic security” as key infrastructure and related industries, technologies, or intellectual property, and defines “economic security” as having secure production at home plus reliable access to global resources to keep our standard of living and protect national values. Up to $1,000,000 is authorized for each fiscal year 2022 through 2026 to carry out this work.