§322 Continuity of the Economy Plan

Summary

The President must create and keep a plan to protect, keep running, and restore the U.S. economy after a major event. The plan must fit a free market, follow the rule of law, and respect private property. It must look at how goods and services move around the country and name the economic activities and systems whose failure would hurt national security, the economy, defense readiness, or public health. The plan must single out critical systems to prioritize, such as power and electric transmission; national and international finance (payments, stocks, currency exchanges); communications, data-hosting, and cloud services; interstate oil and gas pipelines; and the roads, rails, air, and sea systems that move goods and medical supplies. It must also point out functions that could cause catastrophic loss, loss of public confidence, or widespread deaths if they fail; say which functions are vital to response and recovery; include continuity practices; identify industrial control networks that would be dangerous if disconnected or hacked and list fixes (like parallel systems, stand-alone analog systems, or hardening); say which sectors need protected, uncorrupted data; list raw materials and goods whose absence would hurt those functions; analyze supply diversification; recommend whether to hold strategic reserves and how to track them; identify transport options available as of January 1, 2021 and ones to develop; give guidance on who gets priority for scarce items (including States and Indian Tribes) and which workers must keep working; consider lending or other financial support if needed; and review authorities of DHS, the National Guard, the Secretary of Defense, and other agencies to help recovery. In making the plan, the President must get advice from the Secretary of Homeland Security, Secretary of Defense, Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Secretary of Commerce, Secretary of Transportation, Secretary of Energy, the SBA Administrator, and any other needed agency. The President must also consult sector councils, State, Tribal, and local governments, and other non‑Federal groups. The plan must be sent to congressional leaders and relevant House and Senate committees no later than 2 years after January 1, 2021, and at least every 3 years after that. Definitions: agency — a federal agency; economic sector — a part of the U.S. economy; relevant actor — federal, State/local/Tribal governments, or private sector; significant event — a cyber attack or other natural or human-caused event that severely harms economic activity; State — any State, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, and any U.S. possession.