House Amends and Approves HR 4447 – Energy Bill

Yesterday the House completed their second day of deliberations on HR 4447, the revised and expanded version of the Expanding Access to Sustainable Energy Act of 2019. The amended bill passed by a largely partisan vote of 220 to 185 (18 Democrats voting Nay, 7 Republicans voting Yeah). The bill included grid cybersecurity provisions taken in large part from HR 5760.

The one cybersecurity related amendment that was considered, Amendment 12, offered by Rep. Burgess (R,TX) was included as part of en bloc #3. It would have required DOE to “report to Congress on the effect of variable and distributed energy resources on the reliability of the electric grid, specifically pertaining to natural disasters and physical or cyber-attacks on the grid infrastructure” {H Rept 116-528 pg 7; text of amendment at page 56}. The six amendments considered in that vote failed by a voice vote.

With the bill passing on party lines, it is extremely unlikely that it will be taken up by the Senate.