The United States House of Representatives passed U.S. Rep. Candice Miller’s (R-MI) Border and Maritime Coordination Improvement Act, H.R. 3568, on Thursday.
The bills seeks to streamline the logistics and coordination of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) diverse operational components.
“During my time as chairman of the Subcommittee on Border and Maritime Security, I heard from many DHS officials about the overlap and redundancies that plague our border security efforts, driving up costs and limiting effectiveness,” Miller said. “To address these deficiencies, the House passed my legislation that requires increased collaboration and communication between DHS’ diverse operational components and gives them the flexibility to utilize public-private partnerships to better secure our land and liquid borders.”
The bill would authorize DHS to establish and operate joint task forces to conduct operations using DHS personnel and capabilities to secure international borders. The DHS would also be able establish joint task forces for a variety of scenarios, including coordinating operations along the northern border, preventing and responding to homeland security crises, establishing other regionally-based operations, and cybersecurity. These joint task force provisions would end on Sept. 30, 2018.
If signed into law, the DHS must submit a plan for the coordination and cooperation of maritime operations undertaken by DHS components and offices with responsibility for maritime security missions, which would effectively update DHS’s 2011 plan.