Bills Introduced – 10-31-13

With the House preparing to head home for another long district week (to be back in Washington on 11-12-13) a large number of bills were introduced, many just for the purpose of campaigning while back home. Of the 95 bills and resolutions introduced yesterday, three might be of interest to readers of this blog:

HR 3381 Latest Title: To authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2014 for intelligence and intelligence-related activities of the United States Government, the Community Management Account, and the Central Intelligence Agency Retirement and Disability System, and for other purposes. Sponsor: Rep Rogers, Mike J. (R,MI)

HR 3410 Latest Title: To amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to secure critical infrastructure against electromagnetic pulses, and for other purposes. Sponsor: Rep Franks, Trent (R,AZ)

HJ RES 100 Latest Title: Making further continuing appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2014, and for other purposes. Sponsor: Rep Miller, George (D,CA)

While most commentators will be looking at the Intel Authorization bill for restrictions on the use of electronic surveillance in the US, I will be watching for various cybersecurity provisions.

While an EMP attack could be devastating, the cost of defending against this type of low probability attack would be quite high. It will be interesting to see how this bill addresses the situation.

It seems a bit early to see the next round of Continuing Resolutions being introduced. Since Rep. Miller is a Democrat and is neither a member of the Appropriations nor Budget Committees, this bill has zero chance of being considered. So, this bill was introduced solely for home district consumption. Still it might be interesting to see what it includes.