House Passes HR 1158 – Cyber Response Teams

Yesterday, the House passed HR 1158,, (corrected bill number, thanks to Toshio Miyachi for catching my error - see the comment below) the DHS Cyber Incident Response Teams Act of 2019, by a voice vote. There were no voices of dissent during the eight minutes of debate on the Floor of the House.

One common theme in the voices raised in support of the bill was the importance of the use of ‘private-sector capabilities’ to address these growing and evolving threats. Rep. McCaul (R,TX), the author of the bill, noted that it “really provides a force multiplier, and I think it is a very important step forward in the right direction” {pg H4368}.

A similar bill  (HR 5074) was passed in the 115^th Congress, but it was not taken up by the Senate. This year the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee has favorably reported a similar Senate bill (S 315). It is no yet clear whether either version of the legislation will make it to the floor of the Senate for consideration. If one of the two bills is considered, it will almost certainly be done under the Senate’s unanimous consent process.