The White House Issues New National Security Memorandum on Critical Infrastructure

Earlier this week, on April 30, 2024, the White House issued a new National Security Memorandum (NSM) to secure and enhance the resilience of U.S. critical infrastructure. The NSM will replace a decade-old presidential policy document on critical infrastructure protection and launch a comprehensive effort to protect U.S. infrastructure against all threats and hazards.

The NSM aims to ensure U.S. critical infrastructure can provide the nation a strong and innovative economy, protect American families, and enhance our collective resilience to disasters before they happen. This NSM specifically clarifies the roles and responsibilities of the lead federal agencies identified to improve the resilience of our critical infrastructure sectors against all hazards. EPA is the official sector risk management agency with respect to the water sector. The NSM also implements a coordinated national approach to assess and manage sector-specific risks.

While it’s unclear how the new NSM will directly impact the ongoing efforts to increase resiliency across the water and wastewater sector, ASDWA continues to engage with EPA and sector partners to support state and Federal activities to address all hazards, including the most recent efforts to standup a Cybersecurity Task Force for Water to address the growing cyber threats challenging the sector.