Bill Text: VA HB2564 | 2025 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Homeland Security, Bureau of; established, powers and duties, report.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2025-01-12 - Referred to Committee on Rules [HB2564 Detail]
Download: Virginia-2025-HB2564-Introduced.html
2025 SESSION
INTRODUCED
25104375D
HOUSE BILL NO. 2564
Offered January 13, 2025
Prefiled January 12, 2025
A BILL to amend and reenact §§ 2.2-222.1 and 52-1 of the Code of Virginia and to amend the Code of Virginia by adding a section numbered 52-8.1:2, relating to Virginia State Police; Bureau of Homeland Security established; powers and duties; work group; report.
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Patron—Batten
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Committee Referral Pending
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Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. That §§ 2.2-222.1 and 52-1 of the Code of Virginia are amended and reenacted and that the Code of Virginia is amended by adding a section numbered 52-8.1:2 as follows:
§ 2.2-222.1. Secretary to oversee and monitor the development, maintenance, and implementation of a comprehensive and measurable homeland security strategy for the Commonwealth.
A. The Secretary shall ensure that, consistent with the National Incident Management System (NIMS), the Commonwealth implements a continuous cycle of planning, organizing, training, equipping, exercising, evaluating, and taking corrective action pursuant to securing the Commonwealth at both the state and local level against man-made and natural disasters. To that end, the Secretary shall take action to assign responsibility among agencies, jurisdictions, and subdivisions of the Commonwealth to affect the highest state of readiness posed by both man-made and natural disasters. In doing so, the Secretary shall ensure that preparedness initiatives will be effectively and efficiently coordinated, implemented, and monitored.
B. The Secretary shall also oversee and monitor the development, maintenance, and implementation of a comprehensive and measurable homeland security strategy for the Commonwealth. To ensure a comprehensive strategy, the Secretary shall coordinate the homeland security strategy with the Secure and Resilient Commonwealth Panel, as established in § 2.2-222.3, the Superintendent of State Police, and all state and local, public and private, councils that have a homeland security focus within the Commonwealth. The strategy shall ensure that the Commonwealth's homeland security programs are resourced, executed, and assessed according to well-defined and relevant Commonwealth homeland security requirements. In support of the strategy, the Secretary shall provide oversight of the designated State Administrative Agency (SAA) for homeland security to ensure that applications for grant funds by state agencies or local governments describe well-defined requirements for planning, organizing, training, equipping, exercising, evaluating, and taking corrective action measures essential to Commonwealth security.
C. The homeland security strategy shall (i) designate a state proponent for each goal identified in the strategy; (ii) identify which state agencies shall have responsibility for prevention, protection, mitigation, response, and recovery requirements associated with each goal; (iii) prescribe metrics to those state agencies to quantify readiness for man-made and natural disasters; (iv) ensure that state agencies follow rigorous planning practices; and (v) conduct annual reviews and updates to ensure planning, organizing, training, equipping, exercising, evaluating, and taking corrective action is fully implemented at state and local levels of government.
D. The Secretary shall ensure that state agencies develop and maintain rigorously developed response plans in support of the Commonwealth of Virginia Emergency Operations Plan (COVEOP). The Secretary shall designate the Virginia Department of Emergency Management (VDEM) as the primary agent to ensure that state agencies are compliant with the COVEOP. The Secretary shall further require that VDEM ensure the development of state agency and local disaster response plans and procedures, and monitor the status and quality of those plans on a cyclical basis to establish that they are feasible and suitable and can be implemented with available resources.
E. The Secretary shall be responsible for the coordination and development of state and local shelter, evacuation, traffic, and refuge of last resort planning. The Secretary shall ensure that jurisdictions and subdivisions of the Commonwealth have adequate shelter, evacuation, traffic, and refuge of last resort plans to support emergency evacuation in the event of a man-made or natural disaster. To that end, the Secretary shall direct VDEM to monitor, review, and evaluate on a cyclical basis all shelter, evacuation, traffic, and refuge of last resort plans to ensure they are feasible and suitable and can be implemented with available resources.
F. The Secretary shall also ensure that plans for protecting public critical infrastructure are both developed and fully implemented by those state agencies, jurisdictions, and subdivisions of the Commonwealth with responsibility for critical infrastructure protection.
G. The Secretary is authorized, consistent with federal and state law and procurement regulations thereof, to contract for private and public sector services in homeland security and emergency management to enable, enhance, augment, or supplement state and local planning, organizing, training, equipping, exercising, evaluating, and corrective action capability as he deems necessary to meet Commonwealth security goals with such funds as may be made available to the Secretary or the Department of Emergency Management annually for such services.
§ 52-1. Establishment of Department headed by Superintendent; Bureau of Criminal Investigation, division for drug law enforcement and investigation, and Bureau of Homeland Security within Department.
There is hereby established as a separate department, a Department of State Police headed by the Superintendent of State Police. There shall be established within the Department of State Police, in addition to any other divisions or bureaus that may be established by statute or otherwise, a Bureau of Criminal Investigation and, a division for drug law enforcement and investigation, and a Bureau of Homeland Security.
§ 52-8.1:2. Powers and duties of Bureau of Homeland Security.
In addition to any other powers and duties that may be provided by statute or otherwise, the Bureau of Homeland Security (the Bureau) shall coordinate efforts in the ongoing assessment of the Commonwealth's vulnerability to and ability to detect, prevent, prepare for, respond to, and recover from acts of terrorism or potential threats to the security of the Commonwealth. The Bureau shall be responsible for the following activities:
1. Advise and inform the Superintendent of State Police, who will serve as the Deputy Homeland Security Advisor to the Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security, who serves as a dedicated homeland security advisor to the Governor and provides regular updates to the Governor;
2. Coordinate activities and information sharing from the Virginia Fusion Intelligence Center;
3. Coordinate with all federal intelligence agencies and private sector partners to monitor domestic and international intelligence to protect the Commonwealth;
4. Maintain an active list of all sites in the Commonwealth designated as critical infrastructure, as defined in § 44-146.28:2, by the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency;
5. Serve as the main repository for all clearances held by officials of the Commonwealth;
6. Consult, through the Superintendent of State Police, with the Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security and the Secure and Resilient Commonwealth Panel on the development of a homeland security strategy and strategic plan for the Commonwealth; and
7. Coordinate with the Secretaries of Administration, Health and Human Resources, Transportation, and Public Safety and Homeland Security.
2. That the Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security (the Secretary), in consultation with the Secure and Resilient Commonwealth Panel, the Department of Emergency Management, and the Department of State Police, shall convene a work group to study the proper allocation of responsibilities for the detection of, prevention of, preparedness for, response to, and recovery from threats to the security of the Commonwealth. The Secretary shall report the findings of the work group to the Governor and the Chairmen of the House Committee on Public Safety and the Senate Committee on General Laws and Technology by November 1, 2025.
