Two Republican legislators are criticizing the Biden administration for not developing or implementing an emergency plan for the U.S. economy in the event of a disaster, despite being required to do so within two years by the National Defense Authorization Act of 2021.
In a letter to President Joe Biden, U.S. Reps. Andrew Garbarino (R-NY) and Mike Gallagher (R-WI) expressed frustration with the current administration over the Continuity of the Economy (COTE) plan, which is supposed to be implemented no later than Jan. 1, 2023. While Garbarino wrote to the White House over the issue last year, he reportedly received no answer.
“With threats against the United States from our foreign adversaries on the rise, we cannot afford to be caught unprepared,” Garbarino said in a separate statement urging the White House to work with Congress on the issue. “The development of the COTE plan is a national security imperative, and it is therefore essential that the Administration address this matter with all urgency for the safety, security, and prosperity of the United States economy and American way of life.”
The idea behind COTE was the development of a plan by the president to maintain and restore the U.S. economy if a significant event arose that caused severe degradation or harm, be it a cyberattack or other event natural or human-caused.
“Since the enactment of the FY21 NDAA, Congress has appropriated $200,000 more than the president’s FY22 budget request for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to develop a COTE plan,” the representatives wrote. “We are also aware that in the spring of 2022, the White House officially tasked CISA with leading the development of the COTE plan, almost 15 months after the law was passed by Congress.
“As we approach the deadline for the submission of the COTE plan on January 1, 2023, I am concerned that there appears to be limited action taken by CISA to develop or implement this plan. The execution of this law requires a whole-of-government effort led by the Commander-in-chief. It is unfortunate that by waiting more than a year to task CISA with completing the plan, you have ultimately set them up to fail to meet the deadline set by Congress.”
Despite the accusation, the pair added that they understood execution of such an effort would take significant personnel and resources to fully analyze all aspects of risk throughout the economy, with updated plans to be provided every three years. Garbarino and Gallagher argued that the country could wait no longer for the development of such a plan and urged a briefing from the administration on COTE’s progress.