HR 6157 Introduced – FY 2019 DOD Spending

Last week Rep. Granger (R,TX) introduced HR 6157, the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2019. As expected there is no specific cybersecurity language in the bill, even though Congress continues to require DOD to provide specific cybersecurity spending documentation in the President’s budget request.

There are a number of cyber mentions in the Committee Report that deserve at least passing mention. They include:

• Cloud Computing (pg 9);

• Quarterly Cyber Operations Briefing (pg 10);

• Cybersecurity and Supply Chain Risk Management (pg 233);

• Cyber and Electronic Warfare for the Dismounted Soldier (pg 237); and

• Unmanned Aircraft Systems (pg 287)

Moving Forward

The House Rules Committee accepted proposed amendments through last Thursday to possibly be included in the floor debate of this bill. As of today, there have been 131 amendments proposed. Nine of those amendments maybe of specific interest to readers of this blog:

• Rep. Garamendi (D,CA) #24 Provides $5 million for the purposes of carrying out a GPS backup technology demonstration;

• Rep. Hasting (D,FL) (5; #s 29, 30, 31, 32, and 33) adding $10 million to each of five separate accounts for “funding for the training and retention of cybersecurity professionals.

• Rep. Langevin (D,RI) #57 Provides $10 million to be used for the DOD Cyber Scholarship Program within the Information Systems Security Program;

• Rep. Castro (D,TX) #69 Increases funding by $3m to the RDT&E account to develop and evaluate unique combined sensor for detection and suppression of altered GPS signals in adversarial environments;

• Rep. DeSantis (R,FL) #78 Ensures none of the funds made available by this Act may be used for international cooperation in cybersecurity with the Russian Federation or the People’s Republic of China

The Rules Committee will meet on Monday and Tuesday to formulate the rule for the consideration of HR 6157 and determine which amendments will be authorized to be proposed on the floor of the House during the debate (probably Tuesday and Wednesday).

The Appropriations Committee adopted HR 6157 by a strongly bipartisan vote of 48 to 4. This will probably be reflected in strong bipartisan support for the bill on the floor of the House. The Senate Appropriations Committee is scheduled to complete their work on their version of the bill next week. That language will be substituted for the House language in HR 6157. Passage of the Senate version will necessitate a conference committee to work out the differences between the two bills.