§481 — Title 6 Domestic Security | U.S. Code

Summary

The Homeland Security Information Sharing Act says federal, state, and local governments should share homeland security information as much as is practical. It explains that the federal government must protect against terrorist attacks and depends on state and local people to help. Some of the needed information is classified or sensitive, so sharing must protect its secret status and the ways it was learned. To do that, agencies can give security clearances to certain state and local workers or they can declassify, redact, or change information so it can be shared without new clearances. The Act also notes that state and local officials can spot threats that federal agencies might miss, and that federal, state, and local groups should work together. It points to existing systems for quick sharing, like the National Law Enforcement Telecommunications System and the Terrorist Threat Warning System, says new sharing should not duplicate those systems, and urges special effort to reach hard-to-reach urban and rural communities.

Title 6, §481

Domestic Security — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)This part may be cited as the “Homeland Security Information Sharing Act”.

(b)Congress finds the following:

(1)The Federal Government is required by the Constitution to provide for the common defense, which includes terrorist attack.

(2)The Federal Government relies on State and local personnel to protect against terrorist attack.

(3)The Federal Government collects, creates, manages, and protects classified and sensitive but unclassified information to enhance homeland security.

(4)Some homeland security information is needed by the State and local personnel to prevent and prepare for terrorist attack.

(5)The needs of State and local personnel to have access to relevant homeland security information to combat terrorism must be reconciled with the need to preserve the protected status of such information and to protect the sources and methods used to acquire such information.

(6)Granting security clearances to certain State and local personnel is one way to facilitate the sharing of information regarding specific terrorist threats among Federal, State, and local levels of government.

(7)Methods exist to declassify, redact, or otherwise adapt classified information so it may be shared with State and local personnel without the need for granting additional security clearances.

(8)State and local personnel have capabilities and opportunities to gather information on suspicious activities and terrorist threats not possessed by Federal agencies.

(9)The Federal Government and State and local governments and agencies in other jurisdictions may benefit from such information.

(10)Federal, State, and local governments and intelligence, law enforcement, and other emergency preparation and response agencies must act in partnership to maximize the benefits of information gathering and analysis to prevent and respond to terrorist attacks.

(11)Information systems, including the National Law Enforcement Telecommunications System and the Terrorist Threat Warning System, have been established for rapid sharing of classified and sensitive but unclassified information among Federal, State, and local entities.

(12)Increased efforts to share homeland security information should avoid duplicating existing information systems.

(c)It is the sense of Congress that Federal, State, and local entities should share homeland security information to the maximum extent practicable, with special emphasis on hard-to-reach urban and rural communities.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

This part, referred to in subsec. (a), was in the original “This subtitle”, meaning subtitle I (§§ 891–899) of title VIII of Pub. L. 107–296, Nov. 25, 2002, 116 Stat. 2252, which enacted this part, amended section 2517 of Title 18, Crimes and Criminal Procedure, Rule 6 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, set out in the Appendix to Title 18, and section 1806, 1825, and 3365 of Title 50, War and National Defense, and amended provisions set out as a note under section 2517 of Title 18. For complete classification of subtitle I to the Code, see Tables.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Reports to Congress Pub. L. 110–28, title III,

May 25, 2007, 121 Stat. 139, provided in part: “That starting

July 1, 2007, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall submit quarterly reports to the Committees on Appropriations of the Senate and the House of Representatives detailing the information required in House Report 110–107.”

§481 Short Title; Findings; and Sense of Congress