Bills Introduced – 07-14-14

Twenty-four bills were introduced yesterday and one of those may be of specific interest to readers of this blog:

HR 5099 Latest Title: To amend the National Institute of Standards and Technology Act to remove the National Security Agency from the list of the entities consulted during the development of information systems standards and guidelines. Sponsor: Rep Grayson, Alan (D,FL)

Earlier this morning I reported on the non-consideration of HR 5035, I suspect that this bill may the part of the response that caused the Republican leadership from withdrawing the consideration of HR 5035 under suspension of the rules.

As I explained in an earlier post, the sole provision of HR 5035 that addressed the NSA influence issue was no more than a pro forma wrist slap of no real consequence. This bill is probably going to be an over-reaction in the other direction.

It will have little chance of succeeding, Grayson is probably not an influential enough member of the opposition on the House Space Science and Technology Committee to force this bill onto the Committee’s markup list. Having said that, it did derail the consideration of HR 5035 and may force that bill to a markup hearing where further attention can be focused on the relationships between NIST and NSA.