Critical Infrastructure Protection Act

Floor Speech

Mr. MEEHAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 3410, the Critical Infrastructure Protection Act, or CIPA.

In 1962, the United States conducted a test named Starfish Prime, where the military detonated a 1.4-megaton thermonuclear bomb about 25 miles above Johnston Atoll in the Pacific. In space, six American, British, and Soviet satellites suffered damage, and 800 miles away in Hawaii, burglar alarms sounded, streetlights blinked out, and phones, radios, and televisions went dead. While only 1 percent of the existing streetlights were affected, it became clear that electromagnetic pulse, or EMP, could cause significant damage.

EMP is simply a burst of electromagnetic radiation that results from certain types of high-energy explosions or from a suddenly fluctuating magnetic field. An EMP can be generated by nuclear weapons from naturally occurring sources such as solar storms or specialized nonnuclear EMP weapons. An EMP event could range from a small-scale incident, with little or no permanent damage, to a large-scale event, with dire consequences. In fact, a successful large-scale EMP event could damage electrical power systems, electronics, and information systems, and these effects could cascade into other interdependent infrastructures, such as telecommunications, gas, and water.

Repeated studies, including by the Congressional EMP Commission and Lloyd's of London, have warned that the U.S. electric grid is vulnerable to damage from EMP events, that there is a significant risk, and that we need to be better prepared. H.R. 3410 takes commonsense steps to address the EMP threat. Specifically, this legislation compels the Department of Homeland Security to include EMP events in their national planning scenarios, conduct research to mitigate the consequences of an EMP event, develop a recommended strategy to protect critical infrastructure, and perform outreach to raise awareness of the threat.

I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 3410, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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