US-VISIT Xfer to NPPD Billed as Info-Sharing Imperative
Deputy Under Secretary for Preparedness Robert Zitz and Acting Director for US-VISIT Robert Mocny testified March 20 before the House Homeland Security Committee about the National Preparedness and Protection Directorate (NPPD).Â
Zitz said the NPPD will integrate risk reduction activities of the Office of Infrastructure Protection, Office of Cyber Security and Communications, and US-VISIT. Â Mocny explained that US-VISIT will move to the new Directorate to support DHS-wide risk management efforts, but also to better share VISIT-gathered information across other authorities of the USG (State, DOJ, the intelligence community).Â
Connecting up State, Justice, and the IC with information gathered from screening conducted by ICE, CBP, USCIS, Consular offices, and FBI sounds like an important priority, and a significant undertaking. Oversight of this kind of information sharing would appear to be almost as difficult given the privacy issues and permissions likely to be involved, let alone the coordination of it to reduce redundant screening and resolve inconsistent data. Where the DHS Screening Coordination Office fits into this effort is pretty important, too. I did not attend this hearing so I do not know if Members raised the SCO an issue. If any readers have insight on this, please comment.
