National Security Initiatives Included In FY 2014 CJS Bill

Press Release

A number of national security provisions -- including ones to protect against the growing threat of cyber attacks -- were included in an annual spending bill that funds the Department of Justice, which was approved by the full House Appropriations Committee last week.

Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA), chairman of the House Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations subcommittee, said the bill provides $8.1 billion for the FBI to fund national security programs, investigations of cyber attacks, violent crime and gang task force programs, and financial and mortgage fraud. It also provides an increase in funding for investigative, intelligence and technology improvements to prevent and combat malicious cyber intrusions to be known as the Next Generation Cyber (NGC), and directs the FBI to continue to produce an annual national cyber threat assessment -- both classified and unclassified -- that identifies and ranks the foreign governments posing the greatest threats to the U.S.

The bill further requires the Departments of Commerce and Justice, NASA and NSF to assess the risk of cyber espionage or sabotage before acquiring any information technology system. Additionally, if these departments or agencies plan to acquire systems produced by entities owned, directed or subsidized by the People's Republic of China, they must first make a determination that to do so is in the national interest.

"There are two kinds of people in America today: those who have experienced a foreign cyber attack and know it, and those who have experienced a foreign cyber attack and don't," Wolf said. "With the threat of cyber espionage greater today than it's ever been, provisions like those included in this legislation are vital to keeping our country safe and secure from foreign threats."

The bill also includes several recommendations for the FBI. It recommends that the FBI develop a national network of cyber task forces, based on the Joint Terrorism Task Force model, to leverage the participation of state, local and international partners. It also directs the FBI to prepare an extensive report documenting its most recent efforts to counter the domestic radicalization threat, emphasizing countering the Internet as a tool for radicalization, and includes funding for a comprehensive external review of the FBI's implementation of FBI-related recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. It also requires the FBI to study the potential for terrorist financing operations both domestically and abroad, including economic attacks of any kind, and identify what preparations are in place to mitigate such an attack.

As in past years, the measure also reaffirms the FBI's longstanding policy prohibiting employees from engaging in any formal non-investigative cooperation with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which was identified as an unindicted co-conspirator in a terrorism financing court case, and urges the U.S. Attorney General to adopt a similar policy for all Justice Department officials.

The bill also directs the Department of Justice to specify its role in how the Fort Hood terrorist attack was designated and what its policies are in terms of categorizing cases.

"It is indefensible that the Obama Administration declared the Fort Hood attack "workplace violence' when the FBI has clearly indicated that their investigation into the attack is a terrorist investigation," Wolf said. "This bill allows Congress to investigate failures like these to ensure the families of the victims are taken care of and the perpetrators are brought to justice."

For nearly a decade, Wolf has been an outspoken advocate for protection against foreign cyberattacks and national threats. After his office was attacked by Chinese sources in 2006, resulting in the theft of information from several office computers, Wolf worked diligently with the executive branch and his colleagues in Congress to raise awareness about cyber threats and combat them in the future.

Wolf said that overall, the spending bill is 5.6 percent below fiscal year 2013 levels and 7.4 percent below the president's budget request. It terminates 39 programs, resulting in savings of more than $500 million from FY 2013. Since returning as a chairman of the CJS subcommittee in 2011, Wolf has reduced spending in the departments and agencies covered by the bill by more than $12 billion.

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