President Clinton’s Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection

President Bill Clinton issued Executive Order 13010 in 1996 to set up the President’s Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection (known as PCCIP). The PCCIP’s role was to examine the burgeoning dependency of the U.S. economy and way of life on critical infrastructures. A set of recommendations by the PPCIP was given to the President in November 1997, and in May 1998 President Clinton ordered two Presidential Decision Directives (PDD) to better protect critical infrastructures.

One directive was known as PDD-62 (called Combating Terrorism) and the other as PDD-63 (called Critical Infrastructure Protection). Noting that the government cannot on its own adequately protect critical infrastructures to maintain citizens’ safety and quality of life, the framework selected for optimizing defensive and security activities focused on leadership rather than micro-management. For example, PDD-63 explained that every federal department and agency would develop its own plan for defending its jurisdiction, and businesses were encouraged to do the same.

See Also: Critical Infrastructures; Critical Networks; Terrorism.