Review – Bills Introduced – 3-25-26

Yesterday, with both the House and Senate in Washington, there were 64 bills introduced. None of those bills will receive additional coverage in this blog.

Space Geek Legislation

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

S 4201 A bill to require the Chief of Space Operations to submit a feasibility report on expanding the Multinational Force Operation Olympic Defender.  Bennet, Michael F. [Sen.-D-CO]

 

For more information on these bills, including legislative history for similar bills in the 118^th Congress, as well as a mention in passing about a bill to require energy and water use reporting from data centers, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/bills-introduced-3-25-26 - subscription required.

NHC Publishes 2026 New Products and Services Document

Earlier this week the National Hurricane Center (NHC) published their “National Hurricane Center Products and Services Update for 2026 Hurricane Season”. This document includes more information on the forecast-cone graphics developments that I discussed yesterday. It also includes information on:

• Storm Surge Watches and Warnings, Peak Storm Surge Graphic, and Potential Storm Surge Flooding Map for Hawaii,

• Mobile-friendly front page of the NHC website,

• Updated symbology of disturbances in the Graphical Tropical Weather Outlook for which development is not expected,

• Annual update to the track forecast error cone,

• Experimental Graphical Marine Wind Warning.

OMB Approves DOT Rulemaking Procedure Final Rule

Yesterday the OMB’s Office of  Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) announced that it had approved a final rulemaking from the DOT’s Office of the Secretary on “Administrative Rulemaking, Guidance, and Enforcement Procedures”. The final rule was sent to OMB on February 24^th, 2026. The notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) was published on May 16^th, 2025.

According to the Spring 2025 Unified Agenda entry for this rulemaking:

“This rulemaking would reinstate and expound upon procedural reforms for the Department’s rulemakings, guidance documents, and enforcement actions rescinded by a final rule published by the Department on April 2, 2021, Administrative Rulemaking, Guidance, and Enforcement Procedures (86 FR 17292). Accordingly, this proposed rule would revise and update the Department’s internal policies and procedures relating to the issuance of rulemaking documents. In addition, this rulemaking would update the Department’s procedural requirements governing the review and clearance of guidance documents, and the initiation and conduct of enforcement actions, including administrative enforcement proceedings and judicial enforcement actions brought in Federal court.”

As this final rule outlines essentially internal rules for DOT, I do not expect to cover this in any detail when it is published in the next week of two. At a minimum, I will note its publication in the appropriate Short Takes post.

NHC Updates Forecast-Cone Graphics for 2026 Hurricane Season

Yesterday the National Hurricane Center (NHC) published an update for the expected use of their forecast-cone graphics. The NHC has been updating these graphics over the last couple of seasons to visually provide more information. Most of this newly added information was trialed last season as an optional experimental graphic.

The new information includes:

Incorporates all land-based (coastal and inland) tropical storm and hurricane watches and warnings in effect for the continental United States, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands;

Uses single shading for the entire 5-day outlook cone;

Legend depicts symbols for areas where a hurricane watch and tropical storm warning are both in effect (represented by diagonal pink and blue lines); and

Full and intermediate Tropical Cyclone Advisories are/will be publicly available on hurricanes.gov.

This season’s experimental graphics will change how the NHC determines the dimensions of the cone graphics. On the experimental version instead of using a set of circles set at a 67% experimental error to determine the width of the cone, yesterday’s update notes that:

“Beginning in 2026, the experimental cone will use ellipses anchored at each NHC forecast point, allowing for the experimental cone to capture a range of possibilities for both the speed and direction of the tropical cyclone’s forecast path. NHC will experiment changing two aspects of the cone using ellipses (instead of circles) to account for errors in speed and direction, and the cone will include 90% of forecast track possibilities, instead of the traditional 67% forecast error.”

This should mean that the experimental cones will be larger. The increase in width of the cone will probably be the most noticeable difference, but the overall length of the cone should also increase.

Review – Bills Introduced – 3-24-26

Yesterday, with both the House and Senate in Washington, there were 61 bills introduced. Two of those bills will receive additional coverage in this blog:

HR 8050 To direct owners and operators of gas distribution pipeline facilities to assess systems for the presence of Aldyl-A polyethylene, and for other purposes. Houlahan, Chrissy [Rep.-D-PA-6]

S 4166 A bill to amend the Energy Policy and Conservation Act to require States to include supporting the physical security, cybersecurity, and resilience of local distribution systems in State energy security plans, and for other purposes. Cortez Masto, Catherine [Sen.-D-NV] 

 

For more information on these bills, including legislative history for similar bills in the 118^th Congress, as well as a mention in passing about yet another bill that would provide some measure of pay equity for DHS employees during the shutdown, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/bills-introduced-3-24-26 - subscription required.

Response to ITI Problem

Last week I posted a brief piece looking at a ‘new’ chemical safety problem, instant tank ignition (ITI), described by Valerii Ivanov in a LinkedIn.com article. He posited that there is currently no effective safety response to this type of conflagration, in part because of the lack of a fast enough fire detection system. Today, I read an article at ChemistryWorld.com that may describe the sensor for developing that critical fire suppression system.

The article notes that:

“Now, an international team of researchers has combined cellulose/MXene with gallium–indium alloy nanoparticles in a low-cost, scalable process to create a durable film that enables ultrafast, reversible thermoresistive switching. The new material can activate alarms in roughly 4 seconds upon exposure to flame, and recover its resistance in about half that time.”

Review – 4 Advisories and 1 Update Published – 3-24-26

Today CISA’s NCCIC-ICS published three control system security advisories for products from Schneider (2) and Pharos Controls. They published a medical device security advisory for products from Grassroots.

Advisories

Schneider Advisory #1 - This advisory discusses four vulnerabilities (with publicly available exploit) in the Schneider Plant iT/Brewmaxx product.

Schneider Advisory #2 - This advisory describes a deserialization of untrusted data vulnerability in the Schneider EcoStruxure Foxboro DCS.

Pharos Advisory - This advisory describes a missing authentication for critical function vulnerability in the Pharos Mosaic Show Controller.

Grassroots Advisory - This advisory describes a missing release of memory after effective lifetime vulnerability in the Grassroots DICOM library.

Updates

WHILL Update - This update provides additional information on the Model C2 Electric Wheelchairs advisory that was originally reported on December 30^th, 2025.

 

For more information on these advisories, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/4-advisories-and-1-update-published-2f7 - subscription required.