Committee Hearings – Week of 9-24-17

The House is coming back to Washington after a week working in their districts and the Senate is coming back from a really-long weekend. The big news this week will once again be the healthcare ‘debate’ in the Senate, but there will be two hearings of interest, both touching on cybersecurity.

IoT Cybersecurity

On Wednesday the Information Technology Subcommittee of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will hold a hearing on the “Cybersecurity of the Internet of Things”. No witness list has been provided.

According to the Library of Congress there are currently three House bills (HR 686, HR 1324, and HR 3010) that contain reference to “Internet of Things” and none of them have been referred to the Oversight Committee for consideration. It looks like the leadership just wants to get into the IOT political game.

Homeland Threats

On Wednesday the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will be holding a hearing on “Threats to the Homeland”; which will almost certainly at least touch on a number of cybersecurity topics. The current witness list includes:

• Elaine C. Duke, DHS;

• Christopher A. Wray, FBI; and

• Nicholas J. Rasmussen, National Counterterrorism Center

Considering the breadth of the topic I think we can only expect to see broad highlights in the prepared testimony. It will be interesting, however, to watch the focus of the questions tossed at the panel.