House Passes HR 5459 - Cyber Preparedness Act of 2015

This afternoon the House passed HR 5459, the Cyber Preparedness Act of 2015 by a voice vote after only ten minutes of debate under the House suspension of the rules process. The bill makes minor revisions to the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to enhance cybersecurity information sharing and makes enhancing cybersecurity an allowable use of DHS grants under the Urban Area Security Initiative and State Homeland Security Grant Program.

As I have noted in earlier blog posts, this bill continues to use an IT-limited definition of ‘cybersecurity risk’ that does not include industrial control systems. That does not mean that DHS cannot share ICS cybersecurity risk information with fusion centers, it is just not required to share that information.

If this bill is taken up by the Senate (not guaranteed by any stretch of the imagination this late in the session in an election year) it will probably be considered (and passed) under their ‘unanimous consent’ process that does not provide any opportunity for amendments on the floor.