I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1608
To require the Secretary of Homeland Security to produce a report on
emerging threats and countermeasures related to vehicular terrorism,
and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY26, 2025
Mr. G
IMENEZ(for himself and Mr. GREENof Tennessee) introduced the
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Homeland Security
A BILL
To require the Secretary of Homeland Security to produce
a report on emerging threats and countermeasures re-
lated to vehicular terrorism, 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 ‘‘Department of Home-4
land Security Vehicular Terrorism Prevention and Mitiga-5
tion Act of 2025’’. 6
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 7
Congress finds the following: 8
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(1) On January 1, 2025, a devastating vehic-1
ular terrorist attack occurred on Bourbon Street in 2
New Orleans, Louisiana, when an assailant inspired 3
by the Islamic State drove a vehicle into a crowd 4
and engaged in a shootout with law enforcement. 5
This tragic incident resulted in the loss of fifteen 6
lives and injuries to at least thirty-five others, in-7
cluding two police officers. 8
(2) Vehicle-ramming attacks and other vehic-9
ular terrorist incidents represent an enduring and 10
evolving threat to public safety in the United States 11
and around the world, targeting innocent civilians 12
and first responders. 13
(3) These attacks, carried out by both orga-14
nized terrorist groups and individual actors, often 15
aim to exploit high-density public gatherings, critical 16
infrastructure, and key transportation hubs, causing 17
mass casualties and widespread disruption. 18
(4) Emerging automotive technologies, such as 19
autonomous vehicles, Advanced Driver Assistance 20
System (ADAS) capabilities, and ride-sharing plat-21
forms, create new vulnerabilities that could be lever-22
aged by malicious actors to conduct sophisticated ve-23
hicle-based attacks. 24
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(5) The Department of Homeland Security, 1
through agencies like the Transportation Security 2
Administration and the Cybersecurity and Infra-3
structure Security Agency, plays a vital role in de-4
tecting, assessing, and mitigating the risks associ-5
ated with vehicle-based threats. 6
(6) Strengthened coordination between Federal, 7
State, local, Tribal, territorial, and private sector 8
stakeholders is essential to enhance prevention, pre-9
paredness, and response efforts, ensuring the safety 10
of communities across the nation. 11
SEC. 3. REPORT ON EMERGING THREATS AND COUNTER-12
MEASURES RELATED TO VEHICULAR TER-13
RORISM. 14
(a) R
EPORT.— 15
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days 16
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Sec-17
retary of Homeland Security, in coordination with 18
the Administrator of the Transportation Security 19
Administration and the Director of the Cybersecu-20
rity and Infrastructure Security Agency, shall sub-21
mit to the appropriate congressional committees a 22
report on the Department of Homeland Security’s 23
efforts to prevent, deter, and respond to vehicular 24
terrorism. 25
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(2) ELEMENTS.—The report under paragraph 1
(1) shall include the following: 2
(A) An assessment of the current and 3
emerging threats posed by vehicular terrorism, 4
as well as the following: 5
(i) An analysis of the methods, tac-6
tics, and motivations used by perpetrators 7
of vehicular terrorism. 8
(ii) An evaluation of domestic and 9
international trends in vehicular terrorism. 10
(iii) An identification of potential fu-11
ture threats related to the misuse of con-12
nected or autonomous vehicles, Advanced 13
Driver Assistance System (ADAS) 14
-equipped vehicles, ride-sharing services, 15
and advancements in automotive tech-16
nologies, including cybersecurity threats to 17
underlying software technologies (including 18
artificial intelligence-enabled technologies) 19
powering autonomous vehicles. 20
(B) A review of higher-risk locations and 21
events that may be vulnerable to vehicular ter-22
rorism, including the following: 23
(i) Critical infrastructure sites such as 24
the following: 25
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(I) Airports. 1
(II) Seaports. 2
(III) Federal, State, local, Tribal, 3
and territorial government facilities. 4
(IV) Power plants. 5
(V) Substations. 6
(VI) Oil refineries. 7
(VII) Public transportation hubs. 8
(VIII) Healthcare facilities. 9
(ii) Soft-targets and crowded spaces, 10
including mass gatherings and widely at-11
tended events such as parades, concerts, 12
sporting events, political rallies, holiday 13
markets, places of worship, authorized pro-14
tests, and ceremonial events. 15
(iii) High-density urban areas with 16
limited physical security measures such as 17
pedestrianized city centers, commercial dis-18
tricts, residential neighborhoods, public 19
parks, recreational areas, educational insti-20
tutions, and tourist destinations. 21
(C) A comprehensive summary of actions 22
taken by the Department of Homeland Secu-23
rity, the Transportation Security Administra-24
tion, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure 25
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Security Agency to research measures that pre-1
vent, deter, and respond to vehicular terrorism, 2
including the following: 3
(i) The identification and coordination 4
with State, local, Tribal, and territorial 5
governments and industry partners for the 6
strategic placement of physical barriers, 7
bollards, and other protective infrastruc-8
ture at higher-risk locations. 9
(ii) The research, testing, and deploy-10
ment of geofencing, surveillance systems, 11
cybersecurity measures, and other tech-12
nologies designed to monitor, restrict, and 13
manage vehicle access to such higher-risk 14
locations. 15
(iii) The creation of real-time response 16
strategies and operational plans to neu-17
tralize vehicular terrorism, including ongo-18
ing research into best practices for threat 19
detection, incident management, and 20
threat containment. 21
(D) An evaluation of the Department’s en-22
gagement with private and public sector stake-23
holders to address risks of vehicular terrorism, 24
including the following: 25
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(i) Collaboration with vehicle rental 1
companies, ride-sharing platforms, vendors 2
of connected, autonomous, and ADAS 3
technologies, freight operators, and auto-4
motive manufacturers. 5
(ii) Development of industry-specific 6
best practices to prevent the misuse of ve-7
hicles. 8
(iii) Protocols for sharing threat intel-9
ligence and security guidance with private 10
sector partners. 11
(E) A description of the Department’s co-12
ordination efforts with Federal, State, local, 13
Tribal, and territorial law enforcement agencies 14
to prevent vehicular terrorism, including the fol-15
lowing: 16
(i) Mechanisms for sharing threat in-17
telligence and situational awareness. 18
(ii) Guidance provided to such law en-19
forcement agencies regarding implementing 20
countermeasures, such as traffic control 21
measures and rapid vehicle containment 22
protocols. 23
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(iii) Joint exercises and training pro-1
grams to enhance interagency prepared-2
ness and response. 3
(iv) Efforts to equip law enforcement, 4
first responders, and private sector part-5
ners with the knowledge and skills to rec-6
ognize and respond to vehicular terrorism, 7
including the development of specialized 8
curricula addressing emerging threats, 9
such as connected or autonomous vehicles 10
and other advanced technologies. 11
(v) Outreach efforts to ensure that 12
smaller jurisdictions have access to nec-13
essary training resources and public safety 14
awareness tools. 15
(F) Recommendations for the research, de-16
velopment, and deployment of technologies to 17
detect, deter, and mitigate vehicular terrorism, 18
including the following: 19
(i) Vehicle immobilization systems and 20
remote disablement technologies. 21
(ii) Predictive analytics and threat de-22
tection software that incorporate artificial 23
intelligence and machine learning algo-24
rithms to identify and flag in real time 25
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anomalous or suspicious vehicle behavior, 1
as well as associated technologies to dis-2
able or divert a vehicle before it becomes a 3
threat. 4
(iii) Innovations in cybersecurity to 5
prevent the hacking or misuse of con-6
nected, autonomous, or ADAS-equipped ve-7
hicles. 8
(G) A description of the Department’s en-9
gagement with privacy, civil rights, and civil lib-10
erties stakeholders to ensure all counter-11
measures and technologies, including artificial- 12
intelligence and machine learning algorithms, 13
deployed to prevent vehicular terrorism are im-14
plemented in a manner that respects individual 15
rights and freedoms. 16
(H) A review of the Department’s public 17
awareness initiatives focused on the following: 18
(i) Educating the public on recog-19
nizing suspicious vehicle-related behavior 20
and reporting potential threats. 21
(ii) Building trust and fostering col-22
laboration between communities and law 23
enforcement agencies. 24
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(iii) Enhancing resilience by encour-1
aging community-based security measures. 2
(I) Such other elements as the Secretary of 3
Homeland Security considers appropriate. 4
(3) F
ORM.—The report under paragraph (1) 5
shall be submitted in classified form, but may in-6
clude an unclassified executive summary. 7
(4) P
UBLICATION.—The unclassified executive 8
summary of the report required under paragraph (1) 9
shall be published on a publicly accessible website of 10
the Department of Homeland Security. 11
(b) A
NNUALBRIEFINGS.—Not later than 30 days 12
after the submission of the report under subsection (a), 13
the Secretary of Homeland Security shall provide to the 14
appropriate congressional committees a briefing on the 15
findings, conclusions, and recommendations of such re-16
port. 17
(c) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 18
(1) A
PPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMIT -19
TEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional com-20
mittees’’ means— 21
(A) the Committee on Homeland Security 22
of the House of Representatives; and 23
(B) the Committee on Commerce, Science, 24
and Transportation and the Committee on 25
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Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs 1
of the Senate. 2
(2) V
EHICULAR TERRORISM .—The term ‘‘vehic-3
ular terrorism’’ means an action that utilizes auto-4
motive transportation to commit terrorism (as such 5
term is defined in section 2(18) of the Homeland Se-6
curity Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 101(18))). 7
Æ
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