President Biden takes new actions to protect U.S. critical infrastructure

Today, President Biden signed a National Security Memorandum (NSM) to secure and enhance the resilience of U.S. critical infrastructure. The NSM will replace a decade-old presidential policy document on critical infrastructure protection and launch a comprehensive effort to protect U.S. infrastructure against all threats and hazards, current and future.

Thanks to the President’s Investing in America Agenda, as well as the emergence of new technologies like artificial intelligence, America has a historic opportunity to build for the future. Good investments require taking steps to manage risk, and for our infrastructure, that means building in resilience to all hazards upfront and by design. Through the President’s Investing in America Agenda, the Biden-Harris Administration has announced $448 billion in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding – including over 51,000 infrastructure projects – and spurred $825 billion in private sector investment in industries including clean power, biomanufacturing, and clean energy manufacturing. Under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law alone, the President has delivered $50 billion for infrastructure resilience specifically, including $8.7 billion from the PROTECT program to improve the resilience of transportation infrastructure and $4.5 billion through FEMA to fortify a range of infrastructure against hazards. Through this $50 billion in resilience funding, the Administration has launched over 4,000 infrastructure resilience projects nationwide.

The NSM will help ensure U.S. critical infrastructure can provide the Nation a strong and innovative economy, protect American families, and enhance our collective resilience to disasters before they happen – strengthening the nation for generations to come. This NSM specifically:

Empowers the Department of Homeland Security to lead the whole-of-government effort to secure U.S. critical infrastructure, with the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency acting as the National Coordinator for Security and Resilience. The Secretary of Homeland Security will be required to submit to the President a biennial National Risk Management Plan that summarizes U.S. government efforts to manage risk to the Nation’s critical infrastructure.

Directs the U.S. Intelligence Community, consistent with the goals outlined in the 2023 National Intelligence Strategy, to collect, produce and share intelligence and information with Federal departments and agencies, State and local partners, and the owners and operators of critical infrastructure. The NSM recognizes private sector owners and operators of critical infrastructure are often our first line of defense against adversaries who target the Nation’s most critical assets and systems.

Reaffirms the designation of 16 critical infrastructure sectors and a federal department or agency as the Sector Risk Management Agency (SRMA) for each sector. SRMAs have the day-to-day relationships and sector specific expertise to lead risk management and coordination within the designated sectors. The named SRMAs for each sector can be found below.

Elevates the importance of minimum security and resilience requirements within and across critical infrastructure sectors, consistent with the National Cyber Strategy, which recognizes the limits of a voluntary approach to risk management in the current threat environment.

The Nation faces an era of strategic competition in which nation-state actors will continue to target American critical infrastructure – and tolerate or enable malicious activity conducted by non-state actors. In the event of crisis or conflict, America’s adversaries may attempt to compromise our critical infrastructure to undermine the will of the American public and impede the functioning of the economy and projection of U.S. military power abroad. Resilience, particularly for our most sensitive assets and systems, is the cornerstone of homeland defense and security.

Further, the growing impact of climate change, including changes to the frequency and intensity of natural hazards, as well as supply chain shocks and the potential for instability, conflict, or mass displacement, places a strain on the infrastructure that Americans depend upon for their lives and livelihoods. This NSM seeks to fulfill the U.S. government’s sacred obligation to the American people to protect our infrastructure and the prosperity and security of the Nation.

National Security Memorandum

2023 National Intelligence Strategy

Sector Risk Management Agencies
National Coordinator’s Office
Department of Homeland Security, Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency
Chemical SRMA:
Department of Homeland Security
Commercial Facilities SRMA:
Department of Homeland Security
Communications SRMA:
Department of Homeland Security
Critical Manufacturing SRMA:
Department of Homeland Security
Dams SRMA:
Department of Homeland Security
Defense Industrial Base SRMA:
Department of Defense
Emergency Services SRMA:
Department of Homeland Security
Energy SRMA:
Department of Energy
Financial Services SRMA:
Department of the Treasury
Food and Agriculture SRMAs:
Co-Sector Risk Management Agencies: U.S. Department of Agriculture and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
Government Services and Facilities SRMAs:
Department of Homeland Security and General Services Administration
Healthcare and Public Health SRMA:
Department of Health and Human Services
Information Technology SRMA:
Department of Homeland Security
Nuclear Reactors, Materials, and Waste SRMA:
Department of Homeland Security
Transportation Systems SRMAs: Department of Homeland Security and Department of Transportation
Water and Wastewater Systems SRMA:
Environmental Protection Agency

###