Bills Introduced – 03-02-17

With both the House and Senate preparing to leave for a long weekend there were 120 bills introduced yesterday. Of those six may be of specific interest to readers of this blog:

HR 1301 Making appropriations for the Department of Defense for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2017, and for other purposes. Rep. Frelinghuysen, Rodney P. [R-NJ-11]

HR 1309 To streamline the office and term of the Administrator of the Transportation Security Administration, and for other purposes. Rep. Katko, John [R-NY-24]

HR 1324 To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to provide for the establishment of cybersecurity standards for certain radio frequency equipment. Rep. McNerney, Jerry [D-CA-9]

HR 1335 To direct the Federal Communications Commission to issue rules to secure communications networks against cyber risks, and for other purposes. Rep. Clarke, Yvette D. [D-NY-9]

HR 1344 To provide grants to assist States in developing and implementing plans to address cybersecurity threats or vulnerabilities, and for other purposes. Rep. Kilmer, Derek [D-WA-6]

S 516 A bill to provide grants to assist States in developing and implementing plans to address cybersecurity threats or vulnerabilities, and for other purposes. Sen. Warner, Mark R. [D-VA]

Readers may remember that late last session Congress passed HR 2028 that provided temporary spending authority for FY 2017 until April 28^th. It looks like HR 1301 may be the first in a series of bills extending that spending authority until the end of this fiscal year. I had kind of expected an omnibus spending bill and we still may see one for a number of the agencies with only a limited number of department specific bills such as this one.

I will only be covering HR 1309 if it contains specific provisions related to the surface transportation of hazardous chemicals.

It is interesting to see two bills addressing cybersecurity in communications. It is unclear how much of an overlap there will be with HR 1324 and HR 1335.

I would suspect that HR 1344 and S 516 are companion bills; identical bills that provide for parallel processing in both houses of congress to speed up the deliberative process. I suspect that these bills will extend grant eligibility but not expand the amount of grant moneys available.