HR1608-119

What This Bill Does

The Department of Homeland Security Vehicular Terrorism Prevention and Mitigation Act of 2025 responds to vehicle-ramming and vehicle-based terrorist attacks, including the January 1, 2025 Bourbon Street attack in New Orleans that killed 14 people and injured at least 35 others, including two police officers. Within 180 days, the Secretary of Homeland Security, working with the TSA Administrator and CISA Director, must report to congressional homeland-security committees on DHS efforts to prevent, deter, and respond to vehicular terrorism. The report must assess tactics, motivations, domestic and international trends, and future threats involving connected vehicles, autonomous vehicles, ADAS-equipped vehicles, ride-sharing services, automotive technologies, and cybersecurity threats to AI-enabled software. It must review higher-risk sites such as airports, seaports, government facilities, power plants, substations, oil refineries, transit hubs, healthcare facilities, parades, concerts, sporting events, political rallies, holiday markets, places of worship, protests, dense urban areas, parks, schools, and tourist destinations. It must summarize actions on physical barriers, bollards, geofencing, surveillance, cybersecurity, access management, response strategies, threat detection, incident management, threat containment, private-sector coordination, intelligence sharing, federal grants, public awareness, exercises, and legal or operational barriers.

Who Benefits and How

State governments, local governments, tribal governments, territorial governments, police officers, emergency managers, airport operators, seaport operators, transit agencies, healthcare facilities, public-event organizers, places of worship, school administrators, and residents in crowded public spaces benefit from a more concrete federal assessment of where vehicle-based threats are likely and what protective measures work. Security technology vendors, physical security infrastructure manufacturers, geofencing providers, surveillance-system providers, and training providers may benefit from highlighted prevention and response tools.

Who Bears the Burden and How

DHS, TSA, CISA, vehicle rental companies, ride-sharing platforms, autonomous vehicle manufacturers, connected-vehicle software developers, freight operators, critical-infrastructure operators, federal grant managers, law-enforcement training staff, intelligence-sharing staff, and congressional homeland-security staff must supply information, assess vulnerabilities, document current countermeasures, coordinate public-private prevention planning, evaluate cyber and AI-enabled vehicle risks, and identify legal, regulatory, operational, or resource barriers.

Key Provisions

• Finds that vehicular terrorism remains an evolving public-safety threat after the Bourbon Street attack.
• Requires DHS, TSA, and CISA to report within 180 days on prevention, deterrence, and response to vehicular terrorism.
• Requires assessment of current tactics, international trends, and future risks from connected, autonomous, ADAS, ride-sharing, and AI-enabled vehicle technologies.
• Requires review of airports, seaports, government facilities, power infrastructure, transit hubs, healthcare sites, crowded events, schools, parks, and tourist destinations.
• Requires discussion of barriers, bollards, geofencing, surveillance, cybersecurity, access management, incident response, intelligence sharing, grants, training, and exercises.