The House has passed eight bills that address how the Homeland Security Department manages and uses information and technology.

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, said he hoped the measures, which he described as “vital,” would be included in the House-Senate conference on the DHS authorization bill.

The bills approved by the House would:

• Require DHS to use of open source information to develop and disseminate open source homeland security information products.
• Require DHS to work to prevent over-classification of information.
• Promote the implementation of the Controlled Unclassified Information Framework (CUI) at DHS. The CUI framework was laid out in by President Bush in May.
• Remove restrictions on how state and local authorities can spend DHS grants to support intelligence fusion centers.
• Require each DHS component agency to have a privacy officer.
• Levy new requirements and give new authorities to DHS’ chief information officer and requires DHS to examine contractor security policies.
• Clarify the criteria for certain radiation detection monitors that are to be deployed by DHS’ Customs and Border Protection.
• Authorize a Coast Guard program to test the use of mobile biometric identification technology for use on people attempting to enter the country illegaly.