HR 1301 Introduced – FY 2017 DOD Spending

Last week Rep. Frelinghuysen (R,NJ) introduced HR 1301, the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2017. This bill provides continued funding for DOD for FY 2017 after the current funding expires on April 28^th, 2017. The House Rule Committee web site provides a link to the Explanatory Statement that serves as the Appropriations Committee Report on the bill. That statement is based upon H Rept 114-577 for HR 5293 and S Rept 114-263 for S 3000 from the last Congress; the provisions of those reports will continue to apply through the remainder of the Fiscal Year.

As usual there are no specific cybersecurity provisions outline in HR 1301, the bill just does not get down to that level of detail in the spending being appropriated for the remainder of the fiscal year. The Statement, however, does provide a wealth of detail about the cyber spending for DOD. Page 7 of the Statement provides an overview of the cyber spending for each of the DOD components. DOD requested $5.7 Billion and the bill provides $6.7 Billion.

There are a number of specific cyber activities outlined in the 350-page document. Some are increases and some are decreases, but it comes out to a $1 billion increase. No real details about the projects are provided, but here are some of the ones of potential interest:

• Air Force Training – Specialized skill training (pg 76) - Program increase - cybersecurity training – Increase $7.8 million;

• Army R&D Programs – Missile and rocket advanced technology (pg 214) - Cybersecurity and supply chain risk management research – Increase $10 million;

• Army R&D Programs – Major T&E investment (pg 216) - Cyber vulnerabilities research – Increase $12 million;

• Army R&D Programs – Amy technical test instrumentation and targets (pg 216) - Cybersecurity of space and missile defense assets – Increase $10 million;

• Navy R&D Programs – Advanced surface machinery systems (pg 229) - Cybersecurity boundary defense capability excess growth – Decrease $4 million;

• Navy R&D Programs – Cyber operations technology development (pg 232) - Excess growth – Decrease $2.5 million;

• Navy R&D Programs – Information systems security program (pg 234) - Excess growth – Decrease $5.2 million;

• Air Force R&D Programs – AF defensive cyberspace operations (pg 249) - Program Increase - $10 million;

• Air Force R&D Programs – Cyber intelligence - Eliminate program growth (pg 264) – Decrease $8 million.

The House Rules Committee will hold a meeting tomorrow to establish the rule for the consideration of HR 1301. The House is currently planning on taking up HR 1301 on Wednesday.