Both the House and Senate will be in session this week.
There are lots of budget hearings scheduled, but nothing of specific interest
to readers of this blog. There will be four cybersecurity hearings; the most I’ve
seen in a single week. There will also be a hearing on the Chemical Safety
Board and a markup of the RESPONSE Act.
Cybersecurity
The following cybersecurity related hearings will be held in
the House this week:
● Subcommittee on Oversight and
Investigations (Committee on Energy and Commerce, Tuesday, “Understanding
the Cyber Threat and Implications for the 21st Century Economy”
● Subcommittee on Cybersecurity,
Infrastructure Protection, and Security Technologies (Committee on Homeland
Security), Wednesday, “Industry
Perspectives on the President’s Cybersecurity Information Sharing Proposal.”
● Subcommittee on Emerging Threats
and Capabilities (Committee on Armed Services, Wednesday, “Cyber
Operations: Improving the Military Cyber Security Posture in an Uncertain
Threat Environment”
● Subcommitte on Information
Technology (Committee on Oversight and Government Reform), Thursday, “Cybersecurity:
The Evolving Nature of Cyber Threats Facing the Private Sector”
I don’t expect that there will be any real discussion of
control system security at any of these hearings.
Chemical Safety Board
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform will
be holding
a hearing on Wednesday looking at “Rebuilding the Chemical Safety Board:
Finding a Solution to the CSB's Governance and Management Challenges”.
There have been a number of complaints in the federal
government and industry about the increasing political focus of the CSB’s
accident investigation results in recent years. A number of people at OSHA and
the EPA have complained about what some call the strident calls for legislative
and regulatory action from the CSB. I expect that we will hear the same thing
in this hearing.
RESPONSE Act
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
committee will be holding a business
meeting on Wednesday. One of the items on the agenda is a markup of S 546,
a bill that would establish the Railroad Emergency Services Preparedness,
Operational Needs, and Safety Evaluation (RESPONSE) Subcommittee under the
Federal Emergency Management Agency's National Advisory Council to provide
recommendations on emergency responder training and resources relating to
hazardous materials incidents involving railroads. The bill was just introduced
this week, so the speed of this hearing is an indicator of how much interest
there is in the bill.
On the Floor
There is nothing planned for this week in either house that
will be of specific interest to readers of this blog. Of course the 500 lb
gorilla that hangs over this week in Congress is the FY 2015 spending for DHS.
It will be interesting to see if and how the various parties decide to try to
work out their differences. What we have seen so far does not bode well for the
future of the FY 2016 spending bills that have not yet even started to wend
their way through Congress.