Committee Hearings – Week of 01-29-17

With both the House and Senate back in town this week the number of committee hearings scheduled begins to approach normal. Of the hearings scheduled this week there is one that may be of specific interest to readers of this blog; electric sector cybersecurity.

Respond to Cybersecurity Threats

On Wednesday the Energy Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on “The Electricity Sector's Efforts to Respond to Cybersecurity Threats”. No witness list has yet been made available.

On the Floor

As I have mentioned in a couple of posts, the House will take up a number of homeland security related bills on Tuesday under their suspension of rules procedures. These procedures allow for limited debate (typically 40 minutes of mostly praise for the bill), no amendments, and a super majority required for passage. Bills considered under these procedures typically have significant bipartisan support.

Bills of interest in Tuesdays list include:

• HR 437 – Medical Preparedness Allowable Use Act (Sponsored by Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R,FL) / Homeland Security Committee)

• HR 612 – United States-Israel Cybersecurity Cooperation Enhancement Act of 2017 (Sponsored by Rep. James Langevin (D,RI) / Homeland Security Committee)

• HR 677 – CBRN Intelligence and Information Sharing Act of 2017 (Sponsored by Rep. Martha McSally (R,AZ) / Homeland Security Committee)