Committee Hearings – Week of 2-9-20

The President’s budget comes to Capital Hill this week, but apparently chemical safety and security (and cybersecurity) will have to wait until next week. There will be four other hearing of interest; two markups, autonomous vehicles and cybersecurity.

Markup Hearings

The House Homeland Security Committee will hold a markup hearing on Wednesday. Among the ten bills that are scheduled for consideration are:

• HR 5780, the Safe Communities Act of 2020;

• HR ____, the State and Local Cybersecurity Improvement Act

The official version of HR 5780 has not yet been published and the second has not yet been introduced (okay it probably was today, but we will not see it until tomorrow).

The House Science, Space, and Technology Committee will hold a markup hearing on Wednesday. Among the five bills that are scheduled for consideration are:

• HR 5428, Grid Modernization Research and Development Act of 2019; and

• HR 5760, Grid Security Research and Development Act

HR 5760 has not yet been officially published.

Autonomous Vehicles

On Tuesday the Consumer Protection and Commerce Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on “Autonomous Vehicles: Promises and Challenges of Evolving Automotive Technologies”. The witness list includes:

• John Bozzella, Alliance for Automotive Innovation

• Cathy Chase, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety

• Daniel Hinkle, American Association for Justice

• Mark Riccobono, National Federation of the Blind

• Gary Shapiro, Consumer Technology Association

• Jeffrey Tumlin, San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency

Cybersecurity

On Tuesday the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will hold a hearing on “What States, Locals and the Business Community Should Know and Do: A Roadmap for Effective Cybersecurity”. The witness list includes:

• Christopher C. Krebs, CISA;

• Amanda Crawford, Department of Information Resources, Texas;

• Christopher DeRusha, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection Office, Michigan

On the Floor

The House is scheduled to take up HR 4432, the Protecting Critical Infrastructure Against Drones and Emerging Threats Act tonight or perhaps tomorrow under the suspension of the rules process. There will be limited debate, no floor amendments and the bill will require a supermajority to pass. This bill will almost certainly receive strong bipartisan support.