Committee Hearings – Week of 04-24-16

Both the House and Senate are in Washington this week and there are an unusual number of markup hearings scheduled that may be of specific interest to readers of this blog. A number of cybersecurity related bills will be addressed as well as another pipeline safety bill.

Pipeline Safety

The House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a two-day markup hearing starting Tuesday. Among the 22 bills to be considered is an as of yet un-introduced pipeline safety bill. This is not the same as last week’s HR 4937; that bill was the House Transportation and Infrastructure’s bill. I’ll have more details on the differences between the three bills now under consideration in a later post.

NOTE: This hearing will also take up HR 2031, the Anti-Swatting Act of 2015.

Cybersecurity

On Wednesday the House Armed Services Committee will hold a markup hearing of HR 4909, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDA) for FY 2017. While the original bill did not have any cybersecurity provisions, last week the Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee did add a number of new sections addressing cybersecurity issues; including:

• Section 221—Strategy for Assured Access to Trusted Microelectronics

• Section 806—Amendments Related to Detection and Avoidance of Counterfeit Electronic Parts

• Section 1631—Special Emergency Procurement Authority to Facilitate the Defense Against or Recovery from a Cyber Attack

• Section 1632—Change in Name of National Defense University's Information Resources Management College to College of Information and Cyberspace

• Section 1633—Requirement to Enter into Agreements Relating to Use of Cyber Opposition Forces

• Section 1634—Limitation on Availability of Funds for Cryptographic Systems and Key Management Infrastructure

On Wednesday the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee will hold a markup hearing addressing six bills; including the:

• S 2607, Developing Innovation and Growing the Internet of Things (DIGIT) Act; and

• S 2817, Space Weather Research and Forecasting Act (text still not available).

On Thursday the House Homeland Security Committee will hold a markup hearing on four bills; including HR 4743, the National Cybersecurity Preparedness Consortium Act of 2016. It will be interesting to see if they address the definition issue so that the bill would also address control system security issues.

On the Floor

The House will consider two bills under suspension of the rules this week that may be of specific interest to readers of this blog:

• HR 3583 – PREPARE Act, as amended

• HR 4240 – No Fly for Foreign Fighters Act

As usual these will be considered under limited debate and no amendments from the floor.

The Senate resumes consideration of the military construction spending bill. There is a possibility that another spending bill may come up for consideration late this week.