Committee Hearings – Week of 3-26-23

This week, with both the House and Senate in Washington, there is a relatively heavy hearing schedule. A major focus remains on budget hearings, but we also have two cybersecurity related hearings, one oversight hearing, a markup hearing, and another look at the East Palestine derailment.

Budget Hearings

Budget Hearing	House	Senate
NSA	Intel Subcommittee
CISA	Appropriations Subcommittee
TSA	Appropriations Subcommittee
EPA	Appropriations Subcommittee
DOD	Armed Services Committee	Armed Services Committee
DHS	HS Committee
FDA	Appropriations Subcommittee

Cybersecurity

On Wednesday, the Cybersecurity Subcommittee of the Senate Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing on “To Receive Testimony on Enterprise Cybersecurity to Protect the Department of Defense Information Networks”. The witness list includes:

• John B. Sherman, DOD CIO, and

• LTG Robert J. Skinner, USAF

Probably very little discussion about operational technology issues.

On Thursday, the Cyber, Information Technologies, and Innovation Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing on “Cyberspace Operations: Conflict in the 21st Century”. The witness list includes:

• John F. Plumb, DOD,

• Gen Nakasone, Cyber Command

Again, probably very little discussion about OT technology issues.

DHS Oversight

On Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on “Oversight of the Department of Homeland Security”. No witness list is currently available, so it is hard to tell where the focus will be in this hearing.

Markup Hearing

On Wednesday, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will hold a business meeting that will include markups of 28 bills, five of which have not yet been introduced. Bills of potential interest here include:

S. ___, Securing Open Source Software Act of 2023,

S. ___, Reporting Efficiently to Proper Officials in Response to Terrorism (REPORT) Act,

S. 885, DHS Civilian Cybersecurity Reserve,

Derailment Hearing

On Tuesday, the Environment, Manufacturing, and Critical Minerals Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on “Government Response to East Palestine: Ensuring Safety and Transparency for the Community”. The witness list includes:

• Debra Shore, EPA,

• Wesley Vins, Columbiana County General Health District, and

• Anne M. Vogel, Ohio EPA

On the Floor

The House will be considering HR 1 this week, the Republican’s signature energy bill. While the Republicans criticized large omnibus type bills, this is a typical politically-focused conglomerate of 17 previously introduced bills that we have come to expect from the House of Representatives. 153 amendments have been proposed to the House Rules Committee. The Committee will meet today to decide which amendment will be considered on the floor. Only two of those amendments may be of potential interest here:

#102 Ocasio-Cortez (D,NY) - Prevents oil and gas companies that have been found responsible for chemical spills or environmental disasters in the past 20 years from accessing reduced royalty rates.

#147 Schiff (D,CA) - Directs the Secretary of Energy to create a task force that would work with frontline communities to examine the environmental and public health impacts of petrochemical refineries, including local, global, and cumulative impacts. Requires the task force to research alternative options for energy security and offer recommendations to improve energy security in the United States.