Committee Hearings – Week of 2-21-21

This week, with both the House and Senate in session, there is a fairly normal hearing schedule on both sides of Capitol Hill. The Senate is concentrating on confirmation hearings, as would be expected. There is one cybersecurity hearing and two others that may touch on cybersecurity issues.

SolarWinds Breach

On Friday there will be a joint hearing of the House Oversight and Reform Committee and the House Homeland Security Committee on “Weathering the Storm: The Role of Private Tech in the SolarWinds Breach and Ongoing Campaign”. It will be a closed hearing and no witness list is currently available. There is a remote chance that there will be some discussion or at least questions about the impact of the Breach on industrial control system security, but we will probably never hear about them.

There will be more hearings on this topic, many of them public with lots of finger pointing and gnashing of teeth. Do not expect more than theater at this point.

Possible Cybersecurity Mentions

There are two hearings this week that may include some discussion about control system cybersecurity, but I will not be holding my breath. I call them out because of multiple mentions in the media about the possibility that the COVID relief bill could include some sort of funding for cybersecurity at water facilities.

This afternoon the House Budget Committee will hold a markup hearing on the “American Rescue Plan Act of 2021”. The text of the bill that the Committee will markup does not include any mention of cybersecurity. This is presumably one of the bills mentioned in last week’s post on TheCipherBrief that would provide funding for water facility cybersecurity. There is a $50 million mention (§3033) of funding for water facilities, but that is targeted to help pay overdue water bills. We might see something added in the markup, but not likely.

The second hearing will be conducted tomorrow by the Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure on “Building Back Better: The Urgent Need for Investment in America’s Wastewater Infrastructure”. No witness list is currently available. Again, there is a rather remote possibility that cybersecurity for these facilities could be mentioned in light of the recent drinking water hack in Florida.