S 2520 Passed in Senate – SLT Cybersecurity

Yesterday the Senate took up S 2520, the State and Local Government Cybersecurity Act of 2021 under the Senate’s unanimous consent process. The reported version of the bill was withdrawn and the Senate took up an amendment (SA 4898) in the form of a substitute. In this case the language considered was very close to the reported version of the bill. The bill was passed with no debate and no vote.

The only revision of significance (and not much of that here) is found in the proposed amendment to 6 USC 659. In §659(p)(1)(E)(vii) the new language adds at the end of the clause: “including, as appropriate, information produced by other Federal agencies;” in describing the additional information to be shared with State, local and Tribal governments.

As with S 2201 that I described earlier in the day, this bill is now in the hands of the House. If the bill is taken up (no guarantees of that), it is likely to be considered under the House suspension of the rules process. It would likely pass with strong bipartisan support.