Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience Month, 2015

Proclamation 9357 of October 29, 2015

Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience
Month, 2015

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

Our Nation's critical infrastructure is central to our
security and essential to our economy. Technology,
energy, and information systems play a pivotal role in
our lives today, and people continue to rely on the
physical structures that surround us. From roadways and
tunnels, to power grids and energy systems, to
cybersecurity networks and other digital landscapes, it
is crucial that we stay prepared to confront any
threats to America's infrastructure. During Critical
Infrastructure Security and Resilience Month, we
rededicate ourselves to safeguarding our infrastructure
by staying attentive, alert, and ready to respond to
any threats toward our homeland and our assets.

Ensuring our country has a secure and stable
infrastructure is essential to our national security
efforts. Our systems and networks extend beyond the
scope of government. Many are owned by private
industry, and my Administration is committed to
partnering with private entities, as well as State and
local governments, to secure our critical
infrastructure. Earlier this year, we convened some of
America's top infrastructure planning experts at the
White House to highlight and advance important work to
improve our Nation's resilience. We also continue to
collaborate with stakeholders to mitigate risks and
confront threats as part of the National Infrastructure
Protection Plan. Additionally, to support the Build
America Investment Initiative--a Federal effort to
assist communities in constructing better and more
efficient infrastructure projects--we released a
Federal Resource Guide for Infrastructure Planning and
Design. This guide informs communities about relevant
Federal resources and noteworthy case studies, and it
outlines updated principles to guide infrastructure
projects.

By some estimates, we are currently underinvesting in
our infrastructure by hundreds of billions of dollars
each year. I have called on the Congress to pass a
bipartisan infrastructure plan to create jobs and make
America stronger. Not only is it a threat to our
national security, but failing to maintain and
strengthen our infrastructure also jeopardizes our
economic growth and closes doors of opportunity for all
our citizens. Our people and our businesses require an
advanced infrastructure--modern ports, stronger
bridges, faster trains, a modern grid, and high-speed
Internet--and I am committed to efforts to build one.

No challenge demands modern infrastructure more than
combatting climate change--the gravest threat to future
generations, particularly to communities and
populations with strained resources. Drawing on current
efforts, my Administration is reinforcing our
infrastructure projects and making them more clean,
sustainable, efficient, and resilient. Together with
States, local governments, and tribal communities, we
are planning new roads, transit lines, and other
methods of transportation and power generation that
bolster our country's resilience in the face of climate
change.

We have more power at our fingertips than ever before
to communicate, collaborate, and make transactions each
day across the world we share. This month, let us
remind ourselves of the value of our infrastructure,
while recognizing the challenges of protecting it.
Together, we can safeguard the advances we have made as
a people by securing our critical infrastructure

and remaining vigilant in the face of any and all
threats, both here at home and around the globe.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, 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 2015 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 events and training 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 fifteen, and of the Independence of the
United States of America the two hundred and fortieth.