Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.) introduced the USDA-DOI Linking Information Networks for Knowledge-sharing (LINK) Act, bipartisan legislation to strengthen technology collaboration between the U.S. Department of the Agriculture (USDA) and Department of the Interior (DOI) to better support land management, disaster preparedness and recovery.
The LINK Act directs the two agencies to ensure their information technology and cybersecurity systems are seamlessly interconnected to oversee public land management, in an effort to ensure stronger disaster preparedness and recovery coordination. Currently, emergency land management and disaster recovery collaboration can be compromised when the agencies are unable to quickly share important information, such as data about environmental hazards and risks. For example, USDA and DOI employees often have to use different technology systems that are not interoperable, creating challenges and inefficiencies for agency employees who must use multiple different accounts to do their work.
This bill would help simplify USDA and DOI hazard preparedness and land management activities by directing the agencies to ensure that their information systems are interoperable.
“Californians have witnessed the devastating impacts of natural disasters and understand how important it is for agencies to communicate quickly and efficiently to support impacted communities. I’m proud to lead this bipartisan bill with Senator Ricketts to streamline collaboration between agencies and bolster our emergency preparedness and disaster recovery efforts,” said Senator Schiff.
“When I was Governor, I managed disasters. Interagency access to information is critical in preparation, response, and recovery efforts,” said Senator Ricketts. “If the federal government isn’t coordinating between agencies, it becomes even harder for states to receive support. The LINK Act will improve coordination between agencies to support public land management activities and critical disaster response.”
“Grassroots Wildland Firefighters endorses the LINK Act. It is critical to wildfire management success that agencies and firefighters have access to and use the same systems. Just as wildfires do not recognize boundaries, the wildland firefighters protecting public lands and communities fight fire next to each other regardless the color of their uniforms or trucks,” said Riva Duncan, President of Grassroots Wildland Firefighters. “We want to thank Senator Schiff and Senator Ricketts for this bill and for recognizing the importance of including the boots-on-the-ground in implementation.”
“The United Aerial Firefighters Association (UAFA) supports this legislation as a critical step toward modernizing the digital infrastructure shared by the USDA and DOI. As these departments transition toward a unified wildfire management structure, full IT interoperability is essential for the safety and efficiency of aerial firefighting operations,” said Paul Petersen, Executive Director of UAFA. “UAFA looks forward to working with Senator Ricketts’ and Senator Schiff’s offices to provide technical input from our membership. Our priority is ensuring that the transition from legacy systems maintains mission continuity and provides pilots with the real-time, cross-agency data necessary to protect our forests and communities.”
The LINK Act would specifically:
- Improve information sharing in federal land management activities, such as disaster response and emergency preparedness, with an emphasis on activities that would leverage existing integration efforts and capabilities such as wildfire operations.
- Develop an interoperability implementation plan in consultation with firefighters, including a plan for phased retirement of siloed legacy information technology and cybersecurity systems.
The full text of the bill can be found here.
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