Senate Begins Debate on S 1260 – Endless Frontier Act

Yesterday the Senate began considering S 1260, the Endless Frontier Act. As is typical for such bills, the Senate has scrapped both the introduced and reported language for the bill, and is instead considering substitute language (Schumer Amendment, SA 1501) offered by Sen Grassley (R,IA). While the original bill did not have any significant cybersecurity language, the substitute language adds a number of cybersecurity provisions.

New Cybersecurity Provisions

Looking at the table of contents of SA 1501, these are the new cybersecurity provisions:

DIVISION B - ENDLESS FRONTIER ACT

TITLE II - NSF Research, Stem, and Geographic Diversity Initiatives

Sec. 2305. Protecting research from cyber theft

TITLE VI - SPACE MATTERS

PART VIII - Miscellaneous Provisions

Sec. 2676. Cybersecurity.

DIVISION D - Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Provisions

TITLE II—Cyber and Artificial Intelligence

Subtitle B—Cyber Response and Recovery

Sec. 4251. Short title.

Sec. 4252. Declaration of a significant incident

TITTLE III – Personnel

Subtitle B—Federal Rotational Cyber Workforce Program

Sec. 4351. Short title.

Sec. 4352. Definitions.

Sec. 4353. Rotational cyber workforce positions.

Sec. 4354. Rotational cyber workforce program.

Sec. 4355. Reporting by GAO.

Sec. 4356. Sunset.

Sections 4251 and 4252 are probably derived from S 1316, the Cyber Response and Recovery Act. Sections 4351 thru 4356 are probably derived from S 1097.

Other Amendments

There were 23 amendments submitted yesterday for S 1260. In addition to SA 1501 there was an additional cybersecurity amendment, SA 1516 (pg S2741). That amendment would add a section to the bill addressing “United States-Israel Cybersecurity Cooperation”. There is currently no indication if that amendment will be considered on the floor of the Senate.