Committee Hearings – Week of 02-24-19

This week with both the House and Senate in session there are a wide variety of important congressional hearings taking place. Among those are some that are of particular interest here; EMP effects on the grid, the CFATS program, and two cybersecurity hearings.

EMP and the Grid

On Wednesday the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will be holding a hearing on “Perspectives on Protecting the Electric Grid from an Electromagnetic Pulse or Geomagnetic Disturbance”. A witness list is not yet available.

CFATS Program

On Wednesday the House Homeland Security Committee will be holding a hearing on “Securing Our Nation’s Chemical Facilities: Building on the Progress of the CFATS Program”. The witness list includes:

• David Wulf, ISCD, DHS; and
• Nathan Anderson, GAO

The lack of industry witnesses on the list may be just temporary, or it may indicate that Chairman Thompson (D,MS) intends to take a close look at the most recent GAO report (not yet available) on the program.

Surface Transportation Cybersecurity

Today two subcommittee of the House Homeland Security Committee will hold a hearing on “Securing U.S. Surface Transportation from Cyber Attacks”. The witness list includes:

• Bob Kolasky, CISA, DHS;
• Sonya T. Proctor, TSA, DHS;
• Rebecca Gagliostro, Interstate Natural Gas Association of America;

• James A. Lewis, Center for Strategic and International Studies;

• Erik Robert Olson, Rail Security Alliance; and

• John Hultquist, FireEye

Interesting that there will be witnesses representing pipelines and railroads, but no one from the trucking industry. Hopefully that has more to do with House committee politics than representing a cybersecurity blind spot.

DOD Cybersecurity

Today the Subcommittee on Intelligence and Emerging Threats and Capabilities of the House Committee on Armed Services will hold a hearing on “Department of Defense Information Technology, Cybersecurity, and Information Assurance”. The witness list includes:

• Dana Deasy, CIO, DOD;

• Lisa Hershman, Acting Chief Management Officer, DOD; and

• BG Dennis Crall, Deputy Principal Cyber Advisor, DOD

This looks like it will be principally an IT cybersecurity hearing, but topics of supply chain security may arise.