House Adopts Some Cybersecurity Amendments to HR 1960

Today the House began consideration of the amendments to HR 1960, the DOD FY 2014 Authorization bill. As expected this will be a multi-day consideration process.  The Committee of the Whole House (the procedure under which legislation is debated) considered and adopted four of the six amendments that I described in an earlier blog post. Those bills were adopted en bloc by a voice vote. They included:

• 98 #220 Version 2 Cárdenas (D,CA) Revised Ensures that an assessment of the retention, recruitment, and management of the cyber operation forces is included in a comprehensive mission analysis of cyber operations by the Department of Defense.

• 99 #218 Version 2 Cárdenas (D,CA) Revised Ensures that the investigations launched by the Department of Defense related to the compromise of critical program information include an estimate of economic losses resulting from the intrusion and any actions needed to protect intellectual property.

• 100 #126 Version 1 Ruiz, Raul (D,CA) Requires the Secretary of Defense to submit a report to the Congress on the feasibility of establishing a small business cyber technology office to assist small business concerns in providing cybersecurity solutions to the Federal Government.

• 101 #219 Version 1 Cárdenas (D,CA) Authorizes the Department of Defense to create a education program to assist small business understand cyber security threats.

The remaining two cybersecurity amendments will probably be considered tomorrow.