Don Bacon: “I thank the gentleman from Louisiana and I thank the gentlewoman from New York for their leadership today. Mr. Speaker…”

“I thank the gentleman from Louisiana and I thank the gentlewoman from New York for their leadership today. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the bill, H.R. 504, that I authored. It is called the DHS Field Engagement Accountability Act. The purpose of this legislation is to provide transparency, predictability, and technology improvements to the 79 State and locally owned fusion centers across the United States. This bill fixes several shortfalls that were identified by recent inspection findings. I was able to visit the Nebraska Information Analysis Center, known as NIAC, my home State's fusion center, in January of this last year. The NIAC was established in 2007 and serves as a critical information- sharing conduit between the State of Nebraska and the Federal Government to the benefit of all 93 counties in Nebraska. While the NIAC currently has outside support from DHS, not all fusion centers are in the same situation throughout our country, and that needs to be fixed. To address this shortfall, H.R. 504 requires the Department to engage an engagement strategy for how to best coordinate information sharing, technology, and personnel resources with fusion centers. Additionally, the bill requires DHS to develop clear and robust performance metrics for the personnel assigned to fusion centers to provide needed accountability.…”