Research Security and Accountability in DHS Act

The bill would do two things. First, it would amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to assign the Under Secretary of the Science and Technology Directorate a new responsibility: developing, in coordination with other DHS officials, a department-wide policy and process to protect research and development acquisitions from unauthorized access to or disclosure of sensitive information. Within 90 days of enactment, the Secretary of Homeland Security would also be required to brief the relevant congressional committees on progress toward that policy.

Second, the bill would direct the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to report within one year on how DHS has complied with National Security Presidential Memorandum-33 (NSPM-33) and the 2022 implementation guidance from the National Science and Technology Council. That report would specifically address DHS's disclosure practices, how violations are reported to intelligence-community agencies, and how the Science and Technology Directorate fits into a broader federal research-security framework.

The Department of Homeland Security and its Science and Technology Directorate, which would bear the new policy-development obligation. Congressional oversight committees on homeland security in both chambers would receive the required briefings and GAO report. Contractors and researchers involved in DHS research and development acquisitions could be subject to the resulting safeguarding policies.

If enacted, DHS would for the first time have a statutory mandate to build a formal research-security framework, closing a gap that NSPM-33 identified but did not itself enforce through legislation. The GAO review would give Congress an independent assessment of whether DHS has actually followed existing disclosure requirements designed to detect conflicts of interest involving foreign governments in federally funded research.

The Science and Technology Directorate Under Secretary would coordinate with appropriate DHS officials to draft the new department-wide research-security policy, the parameters of which the bill does not prescribe. Within 90 days of enactment, the Secretary must brief the House and Senate homeland security committees on that development effort. Separately, the GAO — an independent congressional watchdog — would have one year to investigate and report on DHS compliance with NSPM-33 and the 2022 NSTC guidance, covering disclosure practices, violation reporting, and the Directorate's role in any research-security framework across the department.