Sheila Jackson Lee: “As a senior member of the Homeland Security Committee, I rise in support of H.R. 2169. the ``Improving Fusion Centers…”

“As a senior member of the Homeland Security Committee, I rise in support of H.R. 2169. the ``Improving Fusion Centers Access to Information Act of 2017,'' which would enhance information sharing in the Department of Homeland Security State, Local and Regional Fusion Center Initiative. This bill requires outreach to be conducted to fusion centers in order to identify gaps in information sharing and consultation with other Federal agencies to develop methods to address such gaps. Additionally, it requires the DHS Secretary to coordinate with the heads of other federal departments and agencies to provide operational and intelligence advice to fusion centers and support their efforts to operate efficiently and effectively. H.R. 2169 requires the Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis (I&A) to ensure fusion centers have access to Homeland Security information sharing centers and that DHS personnel are deployed to support fusion centers in a manner consistent with the department's mission and statutory limits. Fusion centers provide the means to local, state, and tribal law enforcement to bring together information from distributed federal and private sector sources for the purpose of collection, retention, analysis, and dissemination. The term fusion centers first coined by the Department of Defense (DOD) refer to the fusing of information for analysis purposes. The Houston Regional Intelligence Service Center is a Fusion Center.…”