6 U.S.C. § 348 — Joint task forces

(a) Definition: This subsection defines "situational awareness" as knowledge and unified understanding of unlawful cross-border activity. That includes: (1) knowing about threats and trends in illegal trafficking and unlawful border crossings; (2) being able to forecast future shifts in those threats and trends; (3) being able to evaluate them well enough to build actionable plans; and (4) having the operational ability to continuously and jointly monitor the air, land, and maritime borders of the United States.

(b) Joint task forces:
(1) Establishment: The Secretary^* may establish and operate Department^*-wide Joint Task Forces, using Department personnel and capabilities, for the purposes listed in paragraph (2).
(2) Purposes: (A) Subject to the limit in (B), a Joint Task Force may be created to secure the U.S. land and maritime borders, respond to homeland^* security crises, or establish regionally based operations. (B) Limitation: (i) The Secretary may not create a Joint Task Force for a major disaster^* or emergency^* declared under the Stafford Act, or for an incident where FEMA has primary response responsibility, unless the task force's responsibilities exclude operational incident-management functions^* (including coordinating operations) and are consistent with certain other statutory requirements (paragraphs (3) and (4)(A) of section 313(c), section 319(c), and section 302 of the Stafford Act). (ii) Nothing in this section may be read to reduce FEMA's or its Administrator's responsibilities or functions under any law, including diverting any FEMA asset, function, or mission under section 316.
(3) Joint task force directors: (A) Each task force is headed by a Director, appointed by the President for up to two years. The Secretary recommends candidates after consulting the heads of Department components with a seat on that task force. The Director must be either a current senior Department official with at least one year of significant Department leadership experience, or — if no one at the Department fits — someone with at least one year of significant federal leadership experience since the Department's creation, plus demonstrated ability, knowledge, and experience in the task force's subject area. (B) The Secretary may extend a Director's appointment by up to two more years if that serves the Department's best interest.
(4) Deputy directors: The Secretary appoints a Deputy Director for each task force, who must come from a different Department component or office than the Director.
(5) Responsibilities: Subject to the Secretary's oversight, direction, and guidance, each Director must: (A) when the task force was created for border security, maintain situational awareness within its area of responsibility; (B) provide operational plans and standard operating procedures for that area; (C) plan and execute the task force's activities there; (D) set and accomplish strategic objectives through integrated planning and execution; (E) direct the personnel and equipment allocated to the task force; (F) when created for border security, set operational and investigative priorities there; (G) coordinate with foreign governments and other federal, state^*, and local agencies as appropriate; and (H) carry out other duties the Secretary assigns.
(6) Personnel and resources: (A) At the Director's request, and weighing the risk to the Department's other core missions, the Secretary may temporarily allocate Department personnel and equipment to a task force. (B) A task force may not require more resources than the Department would otherwise have needed to do the same work — it must be cost neutral. (C) When choosing where a task force operates, the Secretary should, where practical, use existing facilities that already combine the efforts of Department components with state, local, tribal, or territorial law enforcement or military entities. (D) When deciding whether to allocate a component's personnel and equipment, the Secretary must weigh the impact on that component's own core missions, including, for the Coast Guard, the missions in section 468. (E) Coast Guard personnel and equipment given to a task force may be used only for operations and investigations tied to the missions in section 468. (F) Each year, when the President's budget is submitted, the Secretary must report to the House Committees on Homeland Security and on Transportation and Infrastructure, and the Senate Committees on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, on the funding, personnel, and resources each component allocated to each task force the prior fiscal year, and how that affected the component's own mission.
(7) Component resource authority: As the Secretary directs: (A) each Director must be given sufficient resources and authority from relevant components to carry out the task force's mission and responsibilities; (B) those resources are under the Director's operational authority, direction, and control; but (C) the personnel and equipment remain under the administrative direction of the component or office that provided them.
(8) Joint Task Force staff: (A) Each task force has staff drawn from relevant Department components to help the Director. (B) The report required under paragraph (6)(F) must also state how many staff from each component are permanently assigned to each task force, and how many are assigned temporarily.
(9) Mission; performance metrics: The Secretary must: (A) using leading practices from other law enforcement task forces, establish each task force's mission, strategic goals, and objectives; the criteria for terminating it; outcome-based and other performance metrics (including one- and three-year targets and a description of the methodology used); and a staffing plan; (B) within 120 days of December 23, 2022, or of a new task force's creation, report that mission, goals, objectives, and metrics to the four committees named in paragraph (6)(F); and (C) starting December 23, 2024, and annually after that, report to those committees on progress toward the performance metrics, the staffing plan, and any changes to the mission, goals, or objectives, with reasons for the changes.
(10) Joint duty training program: (A) The Secretary must establish a joint duty training program to enhance Department-wide coordination and support workforce professional development, and tailor it to improve joint operations within the task forces. (B) The program must address, at minimum: national security strategy; strategic and contingency planning; command and control of joint operations; international engagement; the homeland security enterprise; interagency collaboration; leadership; and subject matter specific to each task force, including matters relating to the Coast Guard missions in section 468. (C) Training requirements: (i) except as (iii) and (iv) allow, an individual must complete the program before being appointed Director or Deputy Director of a task force; (ii) task force staff must complete it within their first year of assignment; (iii) this does not apply to the first Director or Deputy Director appointed to a task force on or after December 23, 2016; (iv) the Secretary may waive the requirement in (i) if that serves homeland security or the task force's mission.
(11) Notification of formation or termination: (A) Within seven days of establishing or terminating a task force, the Secretary must notify the Senate majority and minority leaders, the Speaker and majority and minority leaders of the House, and the four committees named in paragraph (6)(F). The notice must include: the criteria and conditions for establishing or terminating the task force; its primary mission, strategic goals, objectives, and plan of operations; if it is terminating, information on its effectiveness as measured by the performance metrics; the funding and resources needed to establish or terminate it; how many personnel from each component are permanently and temporarily assigned; if it is starting, the anticipated costs; if it is terminating, funding allocated the prior fiscal year for ongoing operations and wind-down activities; and the anticipated establishment or actual termination date. (B) The Secretary may waive this notice requirement in an emergency that imminently threatens human life or property.
(12) Review: (A) Within one year of December 23, 2022, the Comptroller General must give the four named committees an assessment of how effectively the Secretary used this authority compared to other options for joint operations, along with a review of the task forces established under this subsection. (B) That review must include an assessment of the methodology used to decide whether to establish or terminate each task force, and an assessment of how effectively each task force was overseen — particularly the Secretary's use of performance metrics to measure progress toward its mission, goals, and objectives.
(13) Sunset: This section expires on September 30, 2026.

(c) Joint duty assignment program: After establishing the training program required by subsection (b)(10), the Secretary must also establish a joint duty assignment program within the Department, to enhance coordination and promote workforce professional development.