HR 359 Introduced – DOE Cybersecurity

Last week Rep. McNerney (D,CA) introduced HR 359, the Enhancing Grid Security through Public-Private Partnerships Act. This bill is nearly identical to HR 5240 that was introduced last session and cleared through the House Energy and Commerce Committee without modification. While the earlier bill did not make it to the floor of the House, HR 359 will be considered under suspension of rules tomorrow.

The only differences between the two bills in that HR 359 now includes ‘the Electric Reliability Organization’ in the §2(a) list of organizations with which the Secretary of Energy will consult in developing the program to promote and advance physical security and cybersecurity of electric utilities. The second and final change is that the new bill includes a definition f ‘the Electric Reliability Organization’ in the list of definitions in §5. Needless to say, these changes are inconsequential.

The House leadership expects that this bill will pass with substantial bipartisan support; the same support that it received in Committee last session.