HR 2578 Amended and Passed in House

This evening the Full House completed their action on HR 2578. After almost two days of amendments the bill passed by a mainly partisan vote of 242 to 183. There were 10 Republicans that voted against the bill and 12 Democrats in favor of this spending bill for the Commerce, Justice and Science (CJS) for FY 2016.

There were a large number of amendments, but only one touched on cybersecurity issues that might be of specific interest to readers of this blog. This afternoon the House, in a largely bipartisan vote (383 to 43), adopted an amendment offered by Rep. Massie (R,TN) dealing with the relationship between NIST and NSA. According to the Clerk of the House web site (@ 3:16 pm) the amendment would “prohibit the use of funds by the National Institute of Standards and Technology to consult with the National Security Agency or the CIA to alter cryptographic or computer standards, except to improve information security”.

The Senate normally takes up their own version of spending bills and then a conference committee is called to iron out the differences between the two bills. The CJS Subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee has not yet finished work on their bill. In fact, they have not held a hearing since early May, so there may not be a Senate bill this year.