Committee Hearings – Week of 11-28-21

This week, both the House and the Senate are back in Washington after their Thanksgiving recess. The hearing schedule is light, with the Senate committees concentrating on nomination considerations. There will be one cybersecurity hearing in the House. The Senate will continue debate of HR 4350, the FY 2022 NDAA. And, of course, midnight Friday is the deadline for passing a spending bill.

Cybersecurity Hearing

On Thursday the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will hold a hearing on “The Evolving Cybersecurity Landscape: Federal Perspectives on Securing the Nation's Infrastructure”. There is no witness list currently available for this hearing.

On the Floor

The Senate resumes consideration of HR 4350, the FY 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). There has been no announcement of an agreement on what amendments may make it to the floor of the Senate.

The House schedule currently includes 24 bills to be considered under the suspension of the rules process. This includes three cyber related bills that I have not covered in this blog:

HR 2685 – Understanding Cybersecurity of Mobile Networks Act, as amended,

HR 4045 – FUTURE Networks Act, as amended, and

HR 4055 – American Cybersecurity Literacy Act, as amended.

The House schedule also includes a generic listing for “Consideration of Legislation Making Further Appropriations for FY22”, but it almost certainly does not refer to an actual spending bill. It will most likely be a continuing resolution of some length. The options being considered include before Christmas, January/February, or September 31^st, 2022. None of the options are ‘good’, all are politically fraught.