Review – Bills Introduced – 8-6-26

Yesterday, with the Senate in Washington (and preparing to leave for the August recess) and the House meeting in pro forma session, there were 130 bills introduced. Two of those bills may receive additional coverage in this blog: 

• S 5291 A bill to require the Comptroller General to evaluate Federal cybersecurity assistance to small business concerns, and for other purposes. Schiff, Adam B. [Sen.-D-CA]    
• S 5313 A bill to require the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to consider cybersecurity risks from quantum computers, and for other purposes. Coons, Christopher A. [Sen.-D-DE]    

Space Geek Legislation 

I would like to mention one bill under my limited Space Geek coverage in this blog: 

• S 5329 A bill to improve space control and space superiority readiness. Cortez Masto, Catherine [Sen.-D-NV]   

For more information on these bills, including legislative history for similar bills in the 118th Congress, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/bills-introduced-8-6-26 - subscription required. 

Chemical Transportation Incidents – Week of 7-4-26

Reporting Background 

See this post for explanation, with the most recent update here (removed from paywall). 

Data from PHMSA’s online database of transportation related chemical incidents that have been reported to the agency. 

Incidents Summary  

• Number of incidents – 550 (514 highway, 31 air, 5 rail, 0 water) 
• Serious incidents – 6 (4 Bulk release, 1 evacuation, 0 injury, 0 death, 0 major artery closed, 2 fire/explosion, 46 no release)  
• Largest container involved – 20,496.0-gal DOT 111A100W5 Railcar {Hydrochloric Acid} Liquid eduction line gasket not properly secured on car containing residue. 
• Largest amount spilled – 3.000-gal Non-spec tank truck {Corrosive Liquid, Basic, Inorganic, N.O.S.} Unexpected chemical reaction during loading from uncharacterized IBCs lead to tank rupture. 
• Total amount reported spilled in all incidents – 5181.0-gal 

NOTE: Links above are to Form 5800.1 for the described incidents. 

Most Interesting Chemical: Organic Peroxide Type F, Liquid: white to yellow colored liquid. Denser than water. Contact with the material may cause irritation to skin, eyes, and mucous membranes. May be toxic by ingestion. Unstable and readily liberates oxygen. Exposure to organic compounds, heat or shock may result in an intense fire or explosion. Obtain the technical name of the material from the shipping paper and contact CHEMTREC, 800-424-9300 for specific response information. (Source: CameoChemicals.NOAA.gov). NOTE: This is not technically an N.O.S. entry, but for emergency response purposes, it might as well be. 

Looking Back – 11-13-09 – Security Fencing

Nearly every morning I start my computer time by looking at information from Google about what happened in my blog in the previous 24 hours. Google, and blogspot.com is a Google service, provides interesting pieces of analytical data about my blog readership. One item of particular interest is the top ten blog posts each day. As you would expect, most of those posts were from the last couple of days, but with 16 years of publishing this blog, every once-in-a-while, a blog post from ancient history rises into that list. 

Today, a blog post from November 13th, 2009, made the list. It takes a news story about protests at a naval nuclear weapons storge site and uses it as a launch pad about security fences. The news story link is no longer working, but the discussion is still pertinent almost 15 years later. Interestingly, for this blog, a series of reader comments lead to two more blog posts expanding on the topic. The last post leaves with a toss off comment that I am still happy with today. In talking about why security is getting easier, I make the comment that: “All we have to do is fob off the hard part to those trained and experienced to handle that chore.” 

Review – 3 Advisories Published – 8-6-26

Today CISA’s NCCIC-ICS published two control system security advisories for products from Johnson Controls and ABB; and one medical device security advisory for products from Medixant. 

Advisories  

Johnson Controls Advisory - This advisory describes a use of broken or risky cryptographic algorithm in the Johnson Controls (Tyco/DSC) TL280 internet security alarm communicator.  

ABB Advisory - This advisory discusses 13 vulnerabilities in the ABB Ability Zenon operations data management tool. 

Medixant Advisory - This advisory describes an out-of-bounds write vulnerability in the Medixant RadiAnt DICOM viewer. 

For more information on these advisories, including DTRH looks at researcher reports and an ABB exploit, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/3-advisories-published-8-6-26 - subscription required. 

Review - HR 9338 Introduced – Pipeline Safety Authorization

 Back in June, Rep Weber (R,TX) introduced HR 9338, the Pipeline Safety Authorization Act of 2026. While the Pipeline Safety Regulations (PSR) do not require reauthorization to continue in force, Congress uses periodic authorization bills to update the various statutes that form the basis for those regulations. The bill does include authorization for the appropriation of funds from user fee accounts and the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund. 

Other Pending Pipeline Safety Bills  

The following bills introduced this session in the House are potentially competing pipeline safety bills: 

• HR 6187, the Wojnovich Pipeline Safety Act of 2025; no action,  
• HR 5537, the Pipeline Accountability Act of 2025; no action, and 
• HR 5301, the PIPES Act of 2025; ordered reported favorably. 

Committee Action  

One July 20th, 2026, the House Energy and Commerce Committee held a business meeting where HR 9338 was considered. A hearing transcript is available here; the HR 9338 portion can be found on pages 86 thru 113. Substitute language was offered by Webber and approved by a vote of 41 to 8. 

That substitute language would add the following sections: 

• Section 10. Grant program to repair, rehabilitate, or replace natural gas distribution pipeline systems.  
• Section 11. Excavation damage prevention.  
• Section 13. Carbon dioxide.  
• Section 14. Biennial pipeline safety rulemaking backlog plan.  
• Section 15. Study and reports on Community Liaison Services. 

Moving Forward  

Webber is not a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to which this bill was assigned for primary consideration. Ordinarily, this means that there would be little chance that the bill would be considered by that Committee. But, since the Energy and Commerce Committee has secondary consideration for both this bill and HR 5301, select provisions from the version of this bill passed by ECC might be added by the Rules Committee to a version of HR 5301 considered by the Full House. That would be done to gain support from the Chair of the ECC for HR 5301. 

For more information on the provisions of this bill, and the legislative conflict with HR 5301, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-9338-introduced-pipeline-safety - subscription required.