I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1508
To amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to authorize a program
to assess the threat, vulnerability, and consequences of terrorism or
other security threats, as appropriate, to certain events, and for other
purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY21, 2025
Ms. T
ITUS(for herself, Mr. HUDSON, and Ms. POU) introduced the following
bill; which was referred to the Committee on Homeland Security, and in
addition to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a period to be subse-
quently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such
provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to authorize
a program to assess the threat, vulnerability, and con-
sequences of terrorism or other security threats, as ap-
propriate, to certain events, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘DHS Special Events 4
Program and Support Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. DHS SPECIAL EVENTS PROGRAM. 1
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Subtitle H of title VIII of the 2
Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 451 et seq.) 3
is amended by adding at the end the following new section: 4
‘‘SEC. 890E. SPECIAL EVENTS PROGRAM. 5
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—There is authorized within the 6
Department a program to assess the threat, vulnerability, 7
and consequences of terrorism or other security threats, 8
as appropriate, at certain special events in accordance 9
with subsection (b). 10
‘‘(b) R
EQUIREMENTS.—The program authorized 11
under subsection (a) shall— 12
‘‘(1) apply to special events that are pre- 13
planned and not designated as National Special Se-14
curity Events by the Secretary; 15
‘‘(2) include a standard process for Federal, 16
State, local, Tribal, and territorial officials to volun-17
tarily submit to the Secretary requests for a special 18
event rating that could result in direct support for 19
security and situational awareness for such special 20
event; 21
‘‘(3) maintain a risk-based methodology to as-22
sess ratings requests, including requests submitted 23
pursuant to paragraph (2), that considers the antici-24
pated attendance by United States officials or for-25
eign dignitaries, the size and venue of the special 26
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event, credible threats of terrorism or other security 1
threats, and other homeland security information, as 2
appropriate; and 3
‘‘(4) include a process for expedited consider-4
ation and, where appropriate, a process for the reas-5
sessment, of a special event rating. 6
‘‘(c) S
UPPORT TOSPECIALEVENTS.—For purposes 7
of protecting a special event described in subsection (b), 8
the Secretary may provide security and situational aware-9
ness support to a Federal, State, local, Tribal, or terri-10
torial official at the request of an appropriate Federal, 11
State, local, Tribal, or territorial official. 12
‘‘(d) A
NNUALREPORTS.—Not later than one year 13
after the date of the enactment of this section and annu-14
ally thereafter, the Secretary shall submit to the Com-15
mittee on Homeland Security of the House of Representa-16
tives and the Committee on Homeland Security and Gov-17
ernmental Affairs of the Senate a report on the program 18
authorized under subsection (a). Each such report shall 19
include information relating to the following: 20
‘‘(1) The total number of special events sub-21
mitted to such program in the prior year, including 22
the number of special events at each rating level. 23
‘‘(2) The total number of events in the prior 24
year for which the Secretary designated a Federal 25
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coordinator or coordinated security and situational 1
awareness support, including a summary of Federal 2
support provided. 3
‘‘(3) The total number of requests for special 4
event rating reassessment under subsection (b)(4), 5
including the following: 6
‘‘(A) The identification of the requesting 7
entity. 8
‘‘(B) The special event name, date, and lo-9
cation. 10
‘‘(C) The initial and final rating deter-11
mination. 12
‘‘(D) The justification for such final rating 13
determination. 14
‘‘(e) P
ERIODICASSESSMENTS.—Not later than one 15
year after the date of the enactment of this section and 16
every five years thereafter, the Secretary shall submit to 17
the Committee on Homeland Security of the House of 18
Representatives and the Committee on Homeland Security 19
and Governmental Affairs of the Senate an assessment of 20
the program authorized under subsection (a). 21
‘‘(f) D
EFINITION.—In this section, the term ‘home-22
land security information’ has the meaning given such 23
term in section 892.’’. 24
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(b) MASSGATHERINGRESEARCH.—Not later than 1
one year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 2
Secretary of Homeland Security, in coordination with the 3
Undersecretary for Science and Technology of the Depart-4
ment of Homeland Security and the official responsible for 5
carrying out section 890E of the Homeland Security Act 6
of 2002, as added by subsection (a), shall, to the extent 7
practicable, carry out research and development, including 8
operational testing, of technologies and techniques for en-9
hancing the Department’s security and situational aware-10
ness support to Federal, State, local, Tribal, and terri-11
torial officials relating to mass gatherings consistent with 12
applicable constitutional, privacy, civil rights, and civil lib-13
erties protections. 14
(c) C
LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of contents 15
in section 1(b) of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 is 16
amended by inserting after the item relating to section 17
890D the following new item: 18
‘‘Sec. 890E. Special events program.’’.
Æ
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