HR 2659 Introduced - United States-Israel Cybersecurity Cooperation

Back in March, Rep Langevin (D,RI) introduced HR 2659, the United States-Israel Cybersecurity Cooperation Enhancement Act of 2021. The bill would require DHS to establish a grant program to support joint US-Israeli cybersecurity research, development, and commercialization efforts. The bill authorizes a minimum of $6 million to support the grant program each year through 2026. The bill is very similar to S 1193 (subscription required).

Differences

The differences between this bill and S 1193 are simply editorial. S 1193 puts the definitions in §2 of the bill and HR 2659 puts them in §2(c). And this bill provides a more detailed of the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 in the definition of “cybersecurity threat”. While these differences are practically inconsequential, they are technically sufficient from preventing these bills from being ‘companion bills’.

Moving Forward

Langevin and his sole cosponsor {Rep Garbarino (R,NY)} are both members of the House Homeland Security Committee to which this bill has been assigned for consideration. This means that, unlike S 1193, there could be sufficient influence to have this bill considered in Committee. While there should be bipartisan support for this bill, there may be enough opposition caused by concerns about the recent flareup in cross-border violence in Israel to stop this bill from being considered; it would be divisive for the Democratic caucus.