New DHS Center to Examine Security of U.S. Port Infrastructure, Provide Recommendations to Private Sector Stakeholders by Early 2024
WASHINGTON – As part of the inaugural meeting of the White House Council on Supply Chain Resilience, President Biden and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas unveiled the Supply Chain Resilience Center (SCRC), a new U.S. government entity designed to collaborate with the private sector to better secure our supply chains. The SCRC will analyze vulnerabilities and conduct scenario planning with private sector stakeholders to help mitigate supply chain disruptions, ensure reliable and efficient deliveries of goods and services, and lower costs for the American people. This announcement is one of many from the Biden-Harris Administration today that will help Americans get the products they need when they need them.
“Securing our critical infrastructure is fundamental to staying competitive in a 21st century economy, and the Department of Homeland Security’s new Supply Chain Resilience Center will enhance our efforts to do just that,” said Secretary Mayorkas. “The global pandemic has revealed that the supply chains that Americans rely upon for food and essential other goods must be more robust and resilient. Conflict, political instability, and climate change could challenge our supply chains in the years ahead. The Supply Chain Resilience Center will help American businesses and the federal government anticipate these disruptions and play a key role in the Biden-Harris Administration’s work to prevent them.”
Disruptions of goods and services can have public safety and security implications. The SCRC will maximize DHS’s authorities, capabilities, expertise, and data sources to help safeguard critical supply chains and associated infrastructure against hazards, including those posed by our adversaries, and emerging technologies At launch the SCRC will:
- Identify security vulnerabilities at U.S. seaports and develop concrete and actionable solutions to mitigate threats to the U.S. supply chain. This includes evaluating the risks to ports posed by adversarial nation state threats, overreliance on untrustworthy equipment subject to nation-state control, data extraction, insider risk, and unvetted virtual and physical access. The SCRC will closely collaborate with port authorities and operators, shipping, transportation, logistics, and other industry stakeholders, and the U.S. Department of Transportation to conduct its analysis. Future analysis and recommendations will include reservation systems, logistics management platforms, and data production. This work will complement other ongoing agency efforts to address port security vulnerabilities, including our shared interest in reducing cyber-related risks from different sources, including untrusted or unauthorized access. In early 2024, the SCRC will release an updated compilation of key DHS port security advisories with recommendations for areas benefitting from enhanced public-private collaboration.
- Launch efforts, in coordination with the Department of Commerce and the private sector, to help secure the semiconductor supply chain, strengthen resilience, and further the implementation of the CHIPS Act.
- Partner with industry to identify how the U.S. government can ensure strategically valuable infrastructure owners and operators can provide essential goods and services to the American people in instances of disruptions or shortages.
- Host at least two table-top exercises in 2024 to test the resiliency of critical cross-border supply chains with other U.S. federal agencies, foreign governments, and industry partners.
“Our job is to cut points of friction, streamline lawful trade, address security vulnerabilities head on, and help ensure American consumers and business can access the products they need,” said Under Secretary for Policy Robert Silvers. “The Supply Chain Resilience Center will bring government and industry around the table so we can become more prepared and coordinated for addressing these challenges.”
In the coming weeks, Secretary Mayorkas will host a roundtable with representatives from the port operations and cargo logistics industries, as well as U.S. importers and exporters, to hear feedback on the SCRC’s work and understand how it can better serve these businesses.
In 2022, Secretary Mayorkas tasked the HSAC to look at what steps DHS could take to achieve a more secure, resilient, and efficient supply chain. HSAC’s Final Report, which was adopted on March 16, recommended DHS “establish a Supply Chain Resilience Center to act as a central clearing house to aggregate and disseminate information about critical supply chain vulnerabilities and disruptions.”
“I am pleased to see Secretary Mayorkas and Undersecretary Silvers act on the recommendations of the Homeland Security Advisory Council (HSAC) Supply Chain Security Subcommittee to establish a Supply Chain Resiliency Center within DHS to enhance the security of our nation’s supply chains,” said Dmitri Alperovitch, Chairman of Silverado Policy Accelerator and Co-Chair of HSAC Supply Chain Security Subcommittee. “The work of the SCRC will be vital for addressing potential vulnerabilities, such as in our nation’s ports infrastructure, and enhancing resiliency of semiconductor supply chains.
The SCRC will reside within the Office of Strategy, Policy, and Plans. The Center will report to Under Secretary Robert Silvers and Acting Assistant Secretary Christa Brzozowski. It will be comprised of personnel from DHS Headquarters, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), U.S. Coast Guard, Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and Cyber and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) who have intimate supply chain knowledge and expertise, and who will be in regular contact with industry and other stakeholders.