Review - HR 4818 Introduced - National Digital Reserve Corps

 Last month, Rep Gonzales (R,TX) introduced HR 4818, the National Digital Reserve Corps Act. The bill would establish within the General Services Administration (GSA) a ‘National Digital Reserve Corps’, to help address the digital and cybersecurity needs of Executive agencies. The bill would add a new Chapter 103 to 5 USC. The bill would authorize $30 million for this new program. This bill would establish a more extensive organization than the one envisioned in either HR 2894 or S 1324.

While Gonzales is not a member of the House Oversight and Reform Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration, one of his five cosponsors {Rep Kelly (D,IL)} is a member. That means that it is possible that there is sufficient influence to see this bill considered in Committee. While I see nothing in this bill that would engender any specific organized opposition, it seems to me that there could be a lack of support for the bill due to some missing critical provisions (see my commentary). I am not sure if this bill could pass, as written, in Committee.

I will have to wait and see how the bill performs (and/or is amended) in Committee before I can make any prognostications on how it might move to the floor of the House for consideration.

 

For more details about the bill, as well as my analysis of its shortcomings and possible fixed, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-4818-introduced - subscription required.