H. R. 4881 - National Defense Critical Infrastructure Protection Act of 2006

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(d) National Defense Critical Infrastructure List-

(1) IN GENERAL- For purposes of this section, the Secretary of Defense, in consultation with the Secretary of Homeland Security, shall prepare and maintain a list, to be known as the `national defense critical infrastructure list’, of critical infrastructure in the United States. The list shall include both military installations and non-military installations.

(2) SUBMISSION TO CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEES- Whenever the national defense critical infrastructure list is revised, the Secretary of Defense shall, not later than 15 days after the date of the revision, submit notice of the revision in writing to the following:

(A) The Committee on Armed Services of the Senate.

(B) The Committee on Armed Services of the House of Representatives.

(3) CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE DEFINED- In this section, the term `critical infrastructure’ means any system or asset, whether physical or virtual, that is so vital to the United States that the incapacity or destruction of such system or asset would have a debilitating effect on national security, on national economic security, on national public health or safety, or on any combination of those matters.
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WALLACE: Congressman Hunter, you not only wanted to block the ports deal, you have proposed legislation that would mandate all critical infrastructure in the United States be American-owned.

HUNTER: Sure.

WALLACE: Are you going to go ahead with that bill?

HUNTER: Yes, we’re moving ahead with the bill. Now, part of what was in the bill, which was to kill the Dubai deal, is now done. And of course, that would be stripped away.

But it’s important that the secretary of defense, in consultation with Homeland Security, identifies what is critical infrastructure. That is, infrastructure that is critical to national security. And having identified that, that that infrastructure be owned, operated and managed by Americans.

And you know something, Chris, it can be. And the idea that somehow we Americans can project enormous power halfway around the globe, we can offload tons and tons of material, and we can send people to far reaches of the globe in very short periods of time, but we can’t run a port — that idea is just not logical.

And we’ve got lots of great people coming back from Afghanistan, from Iraq. Let’s get a good colonel out of the 101st Airborne, retired, and let him operate some of this critical infrastructure.

WALLACE: Congressman, I want you to take a look, though, at this list, if you will. Foreign companies now operate about 80 percent of U.S. port terminals. Another Dubai company, Inchcape, moves ships in and out of two dozen American ports.

An Australian company owns the Chicago Skyway Bridge and the Detroit Windsor Tunnel. And German and French firms purify water for 24 million Americans. Congressman, would you ban all of that?

HUNTER: Well, what we do in this bill is require that you have a security committee, if something is defined by the secretary of defense as being critical American infrastructure.

WALLACE: Well, we’re talking about water purification, key bridges, key tunnels.

HUNTER: Well, whatever he goes with, we give a five-year period for divestment by the parent companies. You don’t have a fire sale.

And we have a requirement that you have a security committee made up of independent directors in that entity that runs that critical infrastructure, and that has to work with the secretary of defense to put together a security plan.

The point is, Chris, you know, we talk about having a strong homeland security, checking 100 percent of cargo containers, et cetera. In the end, our commercial interests get ahead of us, and here we are, years after 9/11, still with a relatively small percentage of cargo being checked. We have to move ahead.

And the other point is this, Chris. You couldn’t open a hamburger stand in Dubai because Americans can’t own anything. All we’re asking to foreclose to foreign ownership is a tiny percentage of that vast array of economic opportunities. Let’s let people buy apartments in Chicago or farmland in Iowa, but they can’t own and operate port operations.
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