HR 360 and Congresscritters

While there was no opposition to the four DOE cybersecurity bills passed Tuesday in the House, it is worthwhile to read the debate on these bills. I would specifically like to call your attention to the debate on HR 360, the Cyber Sense Act.

As with most bills considered in the House under the suspension of the rules process, there were no opposing voices heard on this bill. Most of the ‘debate’ is praise for the bills authors and the committee leadership for moving the bill forward. Every once-in-a-while you will hear a congress person talk about the provisions of the bill under consideration. For HR 360, Rep Walden (R,OR) was one such voice.

Amongst other positive comments about the bill, Walden said:

“The bill also was amended to make clear these efforts of the Department of Energy would include, as appropriate, other relevant Federal agencies like the Department of Homeland Security.”

Unfortunately, he was mistaken. According to the Committee Report on the bill from the House Energy and Commerce Committee (pg 5):

“On July 17, 2019, the full Committee on Energy and Commerce met in open markup session, pursuant to notice, to consider H.R. 360. No amendments were offered at full Committee. Subsequently, the Committee agreed to a motion by Mr. Pallone, Chairman, to order the bill H.R. 360 reported favorably to the House, without amendment [emphasis added], by a voice vote, a quorum being present.”

Furthermore, the language included in the Congressional Record is the same language as was adopted by the Committee.

Okay, to err is human so even congresscritters should be forgiven for their human frailties. And to be fair, perhaps he confused HR 360 with one of the other DOE cybersecurity bills being considered in the House on Tuesday. But, no, none of those bills had language added that sounds anything like that described by Walden. In fact, sharp eyed readers of this blog might recall that such language was actually removed from HR 359, as I reported on Monday.

So, does this mean that Walden is a bad person? Of course not; not even a bad congresscritter. People misremember things all of the time. It just means that when you read what a congresscritter tells you about a bill, you have to verify what they say. Read the bill yourself. Remember that congresscritters probably do not have the time to do that for each bill they consider in the course of their job.