Review - S 2585 Introduced - State and Local Cybersecurity Improvement

Last month, Sen Hassan (D,NH) introduced S 2585, the State and Local Cybersecurity Improvement Act. The bill is similar to HR 3138 that was passed in the House in July in that it would require State and local government entities to formulate a cybersecurity plan to support their funding requests through a grant program established by the bill. It does not include any of the other provisions in the House bill amending the Homeland Security Act of 2002. Monies are appropriated to support the grant program at lower rates than in the House bill.

Hassan is the chair of the Emerging Threats and Spending Oversight Subcommittee of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration. That would be sufficient influence to see this bill considered in Committee. If considered, the bill would probably receive bipartisan support.

The Senate included a version of this bill (Division G, Title VI, Subtitle B) in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (HR 3684) passed last month. The House is scheduled to take up that bill on or before September 27^th. If the House passes that bill, further action on S 2585 will obviously be unnecessary. If it fails in the House, I suspect that the Committee would take up and pass this bill. The Senate could then take up HR 3138 either as is or substitute the language from this bill (the usual procedure).

For more details about the differences between this bill and HR 3138, including the differences in the authorized funding for the grant program, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/s-2585-introduced - subscription required.