Bills Introduced – 09-26-18

Yesterday with both the House and Senate in Session (and the election recess quickly approaching) there were 61 bills introduced. Of those, three may receive additional attention in this blog:

HR 6913 To direct the Secretary of Commerce to establish a working group to recommend to Congress a definition of blockchain technology, and for other purposes. Rep. Guthrie, Brett [R-KY-2] 

H Res 1082 Providing for the concurrence by the House in the Senate amendment to H.R. 302, with an amendment. Rep. Williams, Roger [R-TX-25]

S 3513 A bill to establish a deadline for the establishment of a process to allow applicants to petition the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration to prohibit or restrict the operation of an unmanned aircraft in close proximity to a fixed site facility. Sen. Cortez Masto, Catherine [D-NV]

With the exception of H Res 1082 (which passed in the House yesterday by a vote of 398 to 23) it is unlikely that these bills will see any action between now and the end of the session in December.

The resolution is the vehicle for changing HR 302 into the FAA Reauthorization Act (plus boondoggles) that I described on Tuesday. I presume that the actual text of the amendment is what I linked to in that post, but we will have to wait and see what is actually included in the official text to be sure.

I am assuming that the ‘blockchain’ definition being requested in HR 6913 will be related to cybersecurity, but it is really to early to be sure. I am not sure for what use Guthrie is intending the definition, but this will be interesting to watch, if and when this is addressed.

S 3513 becomes potentially important with yesterday’s inclusion of the ‘Preventing Emerging Threats Act of 2018’ language in the revised HR 302. Declaring UAS ‘no fly zones’ around critical infrastructure will be ineffective unless Congress gets around to extending authorization to intercept violating UAS, but this could be an important first step; again if and when this is passed.