6 U.S.C. § 192 — Homeland Security Institute

(a) Establishment: The Secretary must set up a federally funded research and development center called the "Homeland Security Institute" ("the Institute"). (b) Administration: The Secretary runs the Institute as its own separate organization. (c) Duties: The Secretary decides the Institute's duties, which may include: (1) analyzing systems and risks, and running simulations and models, to find weak points in the nation's critical infrastructure and judge how well current defenses work; (2) studying the economic and policy costs and benefits of different ways to boost security; (3) judging how well security measures protect places that could be terrorist targets; (4) finding cases where shared standards and rules could help field workers' and first responders' tools work better together; (5) helping federal agencies build testbeds to check whether new technologies work and are ready to use; (6) designing ways to measure, and then measuring, how well homeland security programs work across the federal government, including at all national laboratories; (7) designing and supporting homeland-security exercises and simulations; and (8) creating strategic technology plans to reduce weaknesses in the nation's critical infrastructure and key resources. (d) Consultation on Institute activities: While doing the work in (c), the Institute must consult widely — with private industry, colleges and universities, nonprofits, other government agencies, and other federally funded research centers. (e) Use of centers: The Institute must use the abilities of the National Infrastructure Simulation and Analysis Center. (f) Annual reports: The Institute must send the Secretary and Congress a yearly report on what it did. (g) Termination: The Homeland Security Institute ends 5 years after it starts.