Department of Homeland Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen applauded congressional approval of the new DHS Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction (CWMD) Office. On Tuesday, the U.S. Senate unanimously approved the Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Act of 2018, permanently establishing the office, which Nielsen founded in December 2017.
“The United States faces rising danger from terrorist groups and rogue nation-states which could use weapons of mass destruction to harm Americans,” Nielsen said in a statement. “There is no question that such an attack could have a devastating effect on our country. This legislation will keep us a step ahead of our enemies, and I am grateful Congress has voted to send it to President Trump’s desk. I look forward to working with Congress and the administration to deploy these new authorities.”
Last night the Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Act of 2018 was passed by the Senate and is headed to the President’s desk for signature. This legislation will fully authorize DHS to pursue our critical counter-terrorism mission. Learn more: https://t.co/Vh3Qvvspys
— DHS CWMD (@DHScwmd) December 19, 2018
The WMD office is led by Assistant Secretary James F. McDonnell, who was appointed by President Trump in May. McDonnell is the former founding director of the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Assurance.
President Donald J. Trump Is Taking Action to Keep Weapons of Mass Destruction Out of the Hands of Terrorists. @DHScwmd is focused on implementing this strategy to protect Americans. https://t.co/hGLal2eUw4
— Asst Sec Jim McDonnell (@JFM_CWMD) December 11, 2018
Nielsen said that 2018 has been a “milestone year” for departmental cooperation with Congress, and cited last month’s establishment of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
DHS Seeks Solicitations for Small Businesses
DHS also announced on Wednesday that it is seeking proposals from small businesses on 10 topics within the DHS Science and Technology Directorate and two from the Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction (CWMD) Office.
The S&T topics are:
- H-SB019.1-001 – Reach-Back Capability for Fielded Rapid DNA Systems
- H-SB019.1-002 – ICAM On-the-Fly
- H-SB019.1-003 – On Body Power Module for First Responders
- H-SB019.1-004 – Modeling-based Design of Sensors for Chemical Detection in Complex Environment
- H-SB019.1-005 – Synthetic Training Data for Explosive Detection Machine Learning Algorithms
- H-SB019.1-006 – Cybersecurity Peer-to-Peer Knowledge/Lessons Learned Tool
- H-SB019.1-007 – Blockchain Applications for Homeland Security Forensic Analytics
- H-SB019.1-008 – Network Modeling for Risk Assessment
The CWMD topics are:
- H-SB019.1-009 – Detector Integration with Current and Emerging Networked Systems
- H-SB019.1-010 – Unmanned Aerial System Autonomous Search of Limited Area for Radiological Threats
DHS states it is mandatory that vendors be registered on the SBIR Portal, the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Company Registry Database and the System for Award Management.
ARCHIVE: DHS Cyber Agency Created with Trump Signature; Nielsen Attends
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Last week we coordinated and supported a joint @USCG and @FBI #nuclearterrorism prevention exercise in San Francisco. We work with our federal partners to counter #WMDterrorism and #KeepAmericaSafe! pic.twitter.com/Qh57hUxADE
— DHS CWMD (@DHScwmd) December 14, 2018
