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H.R.3555 / 107th Congress

United States Security (`USA') Act of 2001

Referred to the Subcommittee on Education Reform.

Official summary

Version 00 · Introduced in House · Dec 20, 2001

United States Security (USA) Act of 2001 - Sets forth "Buy America" provisions permitting, subject to exception, Federal financial assistance under this Act for a project only if steel and manufactured goods used in the project are of U.S. origin.Authorizes appropriations to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to: (1) design, construct, and equip new facilities and renovate existing facilities for defending against and combating bioterrorism and other public health threats; (2) establish a Scientific Communication Center; and (3) improve security at CDC facilities.Amends the: (1) Atomic Energy Act to provide for sufficient potassium iodide tablet stockpiles; and (2) Public Health Service Act to provide for a contingency bone marrow donor program.Requires national standards for the implementation of quarantines.Authorizes appropriations for sequencing the genomes of biological pathogens.Directs the Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to make grants to units of local government and emergency response units to plan, train, and equip emergency responders.Amends the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 to provide staffing for adequate fire and emergency response.Directs the Secretary of Education to make grants to local educational agencies and institutions of higher learning to enhance security and emergency preparedness.Authorizes appropriations to the Secretary of Transportation to establish programs to: (1) address the lack of security on critical highway infrastructure; (2) improve interagency training for and communication among first responders to a terrorist attack; (3) provide real-time information and guidance for the traveling and non-traveling public; and (4) address the lack of adequate security for locks and dams, the lack of cargo information, and the inability to share information in a timely fashion with agencies such as the Coast Guard.Authorizes appropriations to the Secretary of the department in which the Coast Guard is operating to assess the vulnerability of the 50 busiest U.S. seaports and establish: (1) in the Coast Guard the position of Assistant Commandant for Maritime Security; (2) a sea marshal program; (3) a national port security task force; (4) a maritime security institute; and (5) terrorism response plans for responding to a maritime terrorist attack.Authorizes appropriations to the Secretary of Transportation for the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak) for specified passenger rail and freight rail protection projects.Authorizes appropriations to the Secretary of Transportation with respect to public transit security, including installation of communications, surveillance, detection systems, and personal protective and detection equipment at public transit facilities. Requires a National Academy of Sciences energy pipeline security study.Authorizes appropriations for upgrading and expanding the current infrastructure of the Aviation Safety Reporting System of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).Directs the Secretary of Transportation to carry out pilot projects with air carriers for real-time transmission to the FAA of cockpit voice and flight data and cabin video data from aircraft.Establishes a pilot program to deploy commercially available fuel cells at public use airports to ensure a reliable energy supply for new and emerging aviation security technologies, airport control towers, airport terminals, and other airport facilities.Requires the following officials to submit risk management assessment reports to Congress: (1) the Secretary of Energy regarding oil refineries, natural gas, and liquid natural gas storage facilities; (2) the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency regarding chemical manufacturing facilities; (3) the Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) regarding nuclear facilities; (4) the Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission regarding the domestic electric power grid; (5) the Secretary of Commerce regarding the Nation's fiber optic infrastructure; and (6) the Administrator of the General Services Administration regarding Federal buildings.Directs the Secretary of Energy to coordinate development and implementation of an interagency plan to prepare for and defend against terrorist attacks against high-level nuclear waste transportation facilities and infrastructure, interim storage facilities, intermodal transfer facilities, and central repositories.Directs the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate and develop a plan to ensure that Federal, State, and local governments can respond adequately to the consequences of a terrorist attack against the transportation or storage of high-level nuclear waste.Amends the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 to direct the NRC to: (1) establish a system to ensure that transportation of nuclear materials under its jurisdiction meets certain requirements; and (2) commence a rulemaking to consider changes to the design basis threat for NRC-licensed facilities.Authorizes the President, whenever a state of war or national emergency exists, to: (1) deploy either the Armed Forces or the National Guard to defend NRC-licensed facilities from terrorist attack or threat from any foreign power; and (2) restrict air space in the vicinity of such facilities.Requires each Federal agency to take certain steps to enhance cyber security. Authorizes appropriations for State and local governments to do the same.Requires the Attorney General to update a specified study assessing the vulnerability of Federal facilities.Requires the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Director of Central Intelligence to investigate whether existing computer knowledge assessment technologies meeting specified criteria can be used to detect individuals with terrorist training.Directs the Attorney General to create a pilot program for establishing civilian supplemental incident response teams.Authorizes appropriations to the U.S. Postal Service to enhance its ability to detect and neutralize, or otherwise respond to, any dangerous matter entered into the mails without authorization.Directs the United States Customs Service to expedite the development and deployment of pulsed fast neutron analysis technology and authorizes appropriations for the development of scanners capable of sensing biological and chemical contaminants in microscopic airborne quantities.Directs the Attorney General to: (1) take specified measures for identifying individuals crossing U.S. Borders; and (2) increase to specified levels the number of U.S. Border Patrol personnel, U.S. marshals, and Immigration and Naturalization Service and Customs Service inspectors at ports of entry by 2003.Requires the Commissioner of Immigration and Naturalization to establish a border health inspectors corps to inspect individuals who may be intending to infect others for infectious disease.Requires the Director of Homeland Security to consider a program to improve aerial reconnaissance activities at U.S. borders, to include the use of unmanned aerial vehicle systems.Directs the President, acting through the Office of Homeland Security, to oversee the appropriate sharing of information among Federal, State, and local agencies involved in intelligence collection and law enforcement.Directs the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security to develop within such Office an entity to develop a system-wide information network to integrate existing watch lists of suspected terrorists.Amends the Communications Act of 1934 to require the prompt assignment of specified channels for public safety purposes.Requires the Attorney General to establish regional emerging threat workspaces.Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services, acting through the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to maintain a secure database on select biological agents that pose a threat to public health by terrorist attack.Directs the President to establish within the Office for Homeland Security a center to develop an interagency clearinghouse for new counterterrorism technologies.States the policy of the United States to work with other nations, especially Russia, to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction and the proliferation of necessary materials and expertise. Authorizes appropriations for cooperative threat reduction programs.Requires the Secretary of Defense to develop an integrated plan for the use of technology to combat terrorism.Creates within the Executive Office of the President a Director of Homeland Security who shall conduct a comprehensive risk assessment of threat to the United States and develop a five-year homeland security strategy in response.

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Who introduced it

Rep. Menendez, Robert [D-NJ-13] · D–NJ

Committees

  • Education and Workforce Committee
  • Judiciary Committee
  • Energy and Commerce Committee
  • Transportation and Infrastructure Committee
  • Financial Services Committee
  • Intelligence (Permanent Select) Committee
  • Foreign Affairs Committee
  • Armed Services Committee
  • Ways and Means Committee
  • Oversight and Government Reform Committee
118 cosponsorship records, including any withdrawals

Actions

A procedural vote is different from passage. Passage in one chamber does not establish enactment. Explore the glossary.

  1. Referred to the Subcommittee on Education Reform.

  2. Referred to the Subcommittee on 21st Century Competitiveness.

  3. Referred to the Subcommittee on Crime.

  4. Executive Comment Requested from DOD.

  5. Referred to the Subcommittee on Health.

  6. Referred to the Subcommittee on Railroads.

  7. Referred to the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management.

  8. Referred to the Subcommittee on Highways and Transit.

  9. Referred to the Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation.

  10. Referred to the Subcommittee on Aviation.

  11. Referred to the Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment.

  12. Referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committees on Transportation and Infrastructure, Education and the Workforce, Government Reform, Ways and Means, Armed Services, International Relations, Intelligence (Permanent Select), Financial Services, and the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.

  13. Referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committees on Transportation and Infrastructure, Education and the Workforce, Government Reform, Ways and Means, Armed Services, International Relations, Intelligence (Permanent Select), Financial Services, and the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.

  14. Referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committees on Transportation and Infrastructure, Education and the Workforce, Government Reform, Ways and Means, Armed Services, International Relations, Intelligence (Permanent Select), Financial Services, and the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.

  15. Referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committees on Transportation and Infrastructure, Education and the Workforce, Government Reform, Ways and Means, Armed Services, International Relations, Intelligence (Permanent Select), Financial Services, and the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.

  16. Referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committees on Transportation and Infrastructure, Education and the Workforce, Government Reform, Ways and Means, Armed Services, International Relations, Intelligence (Permanent Select), Financial Services, and the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.

  17. Referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committees on Transportation and Infrastructure, Education and the Workforce, Government Reform, Ways and Means, Armed Services, International Relations, Intelligence (Permanent Select), Financial Services, and the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.

  18. Referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committees on Transportation and Infrastructure, Education and the Workforce, Government Reform, Ways and Means, Armed Services, International Relations, Intelligence (Permanent Select), Financial Services, and the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.

  19. Referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committees on Transportation and Infrastructure, Education and the Workforce, Government Reform, Ways and Means, Armed Services, International Relations, Intelligence (Permanent Select), Financial Services, and the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.

  20. Referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committees on Transportation and Infrastructure, Education and the Workforce, Government Reform, Ways and Means, Armed Services, International Relations, Intelligence (Permanent Select), Financial Services, and the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.

  21. Referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committees on Transportation and Infrastructure, Education and the Workforce, Government Reform, Ways and Means, Armed Services, International Relations, Intelligence (Permanent Select), Financial Services, and the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.

  22. Referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committees on Transportation and Infrastructure, Education and the Workforce, Government Reform, Ways and Means, Armed Services, International Relations, Intelligence (Permanent Select), Financial Services, and the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.

  23. Introduced in House

  24. Introduced in House

Bill text & related measures

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Related bills identified by Congress.gov

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Source last updated: Mar 23, 2026. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.

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Neutral evidence review

Objective

Analyze H.R.3555 as objectively as possible. Explain its main provisions, who would be affected, possible benefits and harms, implementation, exceptions, and uncertainties. Present the strongest arguments for and against it, and identify evidence needed to assess its public impact.

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Fairness and public impact

Progressive lens

Examine H.R.3555 through a progressive lens, focusing on fairness, access, economic inequality, and effects on vulnerable communities. Explain potential benefits, costs, and unintended consequences. Consider the strongest counterarguments and distinguish stated goals from demonstrated outcomes.

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Institutions and government scope

Conservative lens

Examine H.R.3555 through a conservative lens, focusing on fiscal responsibility, institutional stability, federalism, and the scope of government. Explain potential benefits, costs, and unintended consequences. Consider the strongest counterarguments and any provisions that challenge this perspective.

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Individual rights and government power

Liberty lens

Examine H.R.3555 through a civil-liberties and limited-government lens. Consider individual rights, privacy, voluntary choice, accountability, and government power. Explain tradeoffs, possible safeguards, and the strongest counterarguments without assuming the proposal is beneficial or harmful.

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