[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 210 (Wednesday, November 3, 2021)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 60531-60532]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-24113]
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 210 / Wednesday, November 3, 2021 /
Presidential Documents
___________________________________________________________________
Title 3--
The President
[[Page 60531]]
Proclamation 10295 of October 29, 2021
Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience
Month, 2021
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
For generations, American infrastructure--from the Erie
Canal and the Transcontinental Railroad to the Hoover
Dam--has been a cornerstone of our economic power,
providing jobs, facilitating transportation, bolstering
security, and overcoming barriers posed by distance and
geography. During Critical Infrastructure Security and
Resilience Month, we renew our commitment to securing
and enhancing the resilience of our Nation's critical
infrastructure.
Threats to the critical infrastructure that we all
depend on, which underpins our economic and national
security, are among the most significant and growing
concerns for our Nation, including cyber threats,
physical threats, and climate threats. Our country has
seen how the technologies we rely on can be targeted by
criminal activity and how extreme weather exposes the
weaknesses in our power, water, communication, and
transportation networks. We must do everything we can
to safeguard and strengthen the systems that protect
us; provide energy to power our homes, schools,
hospitals, businesses, and vehicles; maintain our
ability to connect; and ensure that we have reliable
access to safe drinking water. While our Nation has
been resilient as we have navigated this pandemic, we
must continue investing in our workforce to keep pace
with the threats we face and ensure we are building
back better.
I am committed to protecting our critical
infrastructure and improving security and resilience
efforts across the Nation. Most of our Nation's
critical infrastructure--from communication lines to
transportation networks--depends on coordination and
cooperation among Federal, State, Tribal, and local
governments, along with industry partners. That is why,
earlier this year, my Administration launched an
Industrial Control Systems Cybersecurity Initiative to
strengthen the security of our country's critical
infrastructure, which has already created 100-day
action plans for the electricity and natural gas
pipeline sectors, with more to come, and we
institutionalized that Initiative with a National
Security Memorandum on Improving Cybersecurity for
Critical Infrastructure Control Systems. The voluntary
initiative is a collaborative effort between the
Federal Government and our private sector partners to
significantly improve the cybersecurity of our critical
systems by providing technologies that detect threats
and can respond in essential control system and
operational technology networks. The Department of
Homeland Security and the National Institute of
Standards and Technology are also partnering with the
private sector to develop `performance goals'--
cybersecurity baselines that will improve our Nation's
security if critical infrastructure sectors adopt them.
Finally, critical infrastructure resilience greatly
benefits from close partnerships at home and abroad,
and this October, my Administration launched a Counter
Ransomware Initiative with more than 30 partners and
allies.
At home, my Administration is committed to making a
once-in-a-generation investment to prioritize secure,
sustainable, and resilient infrastructure. Streamlining
access to Federal programs and grants to help States
and local government build capacity helps ensure we are
modernizing our infrastructure to be more climate-
resilient and building a clean energy future that
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will create millions of jobs. The Bipartisan
Infrastructure Deal includes $550 billion for our
Nation's roads and bridges, water infrastructure,
internet, and more. Our agenda also contains the
largest Federal investment in power transmission in our
Nation's history, ensuring a more reliable grid that
has the capability to carry more renewable energy.
These investments will strengthen our Nation and
bolster our ability to lead, and they will help
mitigate socio-economic disparities, advance racial
equity, facilitate equitable recovery, and promote
affordable access to opportunities for every American.
Protecting our critical transportation infrastructure--
including our bridges and roads--takes all of us
working together.
A key dimension of the Nation's resilience is
safeguarding our democracy, which requires securing our
election infrastructure. We have made tremendous
progress working with State and local election
officials over the past several years, but there is
more to be done. We are particularly focused on
improving the physical security of election officials
as they face increasing threats of violence, securing
election systems from cyber attacks, and confronting
one of the most significant threats we see today:
disinformation campaigns designed to undermine
confidence in our elections, and ultimately, confidence
in our democracy and our democratic institutions.
The threats against our critical infrastructure are
increasingly complex and nuanced, and we all must be
prepared to better protect ourselves from malicious
actors threatening our cyber and physical security.
That means staying vigilant, investing in new security
measures, being prepared to respond to threats, and
collaborating more with our partners. During Critical
Infrastructure Security and Resilience Month, we
reaffirm our commitment to protecting our
infrastructure today and securing it for tomorrow.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of
the United States of America, by virtue of the
authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws
of the United States, do hereby proclaim November 2021
as Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience
Month. I call upon the people of the United States to
recognize the importance of protecting our Nation's
infrastructure and to observe this month with
appropriate measures to enhance our national security
and resilience.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
twenty-ninth day of October, in the year of our Lord
two thousand twenty-one, and of the Independence of the
United States of America the two hundred and forty-
sixth.
(Presidential Sig.)
[FR Doc. 2021-24113
Filed 11-2-21; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3395-F2-P