Review - HR 7776 Cyber Language – 2023 NDAA

Last week, Rep Smith (D,WA) introduced H Res 1512, the bill that was the vehicle for the House’s consideration of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The Resolution provided an amendment in the form of substitute language for HR 7776 that was the actual working of the NDAA. H Res 1512 was adopted by the House and HR 7776, as amended now goes to the Senate for action.

The NDAA contains cybersecurity language in both the military portions of the bill and many of the other Divisions that were added to this must pass legislation. There are 19 separate cybersecurity related sections in the eleven Divisions within the bill.

Moving Forward

The Senate will take up the bill this coming week. With the bipartisan opposition in the House coming from the extreme wings of both parties, we should expect to see some opposition to this bill. If this were solely about a straight up vote on the bill, there would probably be more than 60 votes to move this bill forward. But with the time constraints caused by the end of the session and the need to pass some sort of spending bill, the small minority holds the key to passage of this bill since they can tie up the Senate by insisting on the full debate timelines available in Senate Rules; short cutting those timelines requires unanimous consent.

Majority Leader Schumer (D,NY) is unlikely to allow any amendments to HR 7776 as that would require sending the bill back to the House for an additional vote. He does have the power to allow ‘unanimous consent’ quick votes on favored pieces of legislation as a bargaining chip for allowing HR 7776 to proceed quickly.

 

For more details about the cybersecurity language in the bill, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-7776-cyber-language - subscription required.