Review - S 1324 Reported in Senate – Civilian Cybersecurity Reserve

Last month the Senate Homeland Security Committee published their report on S 1324, the Civilian

Cybersecurity Reserve Act. Back in July of last year, the Committee held a business meeting where they adopted substitute language for the bill approved subsequent amendments. The final version of the bill was adopted by voice vote. Significant changes were made to the scope and administration of the proposed Civilian Cybersecurity Reserve pilot program. The revised bill removes authorization for appropriating funds to support the program.

The original bill would have provided authority for both DOD and DHS to establish separate pilot Civilian Cybersecurity Reserve (CCSR) programs. The changes made to the bill remove that authority for a DOD pilot and moved the DHS program to CISA. Additionally, the bill now specifically spells out the purpose of the program; “to enable the Agency to effectively respond to significant incidents.”

The bipartisan support that this bill received in Committee would seem to predict similar support in the Full Senate if this bill were to make it the floor for consideration. It is unlikely that the Senate would take up this bill under regular order as it has too many higher priority pieces of legislation to consider heading into the last seven-months of the session. There remains a possibility that this bill could make to the floor under the unanimous consent process, but it is more likely to make it to the President’s desk as part of a larger bill.

For more details about the changes made to the bill, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/s-1324-reported-in-senate - subscription required.