HR 1127 Introduced – Cybersecurity Partnership

Back in February (finally published by GPO today), Rep Gonzales (R,TX) introduced HR 1127, the United States-Taiwan Advanced Research Partnership Act of 2023. The bill would specifically authorize DHS Science and Technology Directorate to enter into “cooperative research activities with Taiwan to strengthen preparedness against cyber threats and enhance capabilities in cybersecurity.” No additional funding is authorized by this bill.

Moving Forward

Gonzales is a member of the House Homeland Security Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration. This means that there may be enough influence to see this bill considered in Committee. There will be some opposition to this bill because it violates the long standing one China policy initiated by President Nixon. There is increasing support for Taiwan standing up to China, so that opposition would probably not be sufficient to stop approval of the bill if it is considered, but it will at least delay consideration of the bill. I suspect that there may be sufficient bipartisan support for the bill to be considered by the full House under the suspension of the rules process.

Commentary  

The crafters of the bill use 6 USC 195c as the authority for conducting these cooperative research programs. Unfortunately, that section deals with international cooperation activities for anti-terrorism research. There is an exception for cybersecurity research activities authorized under subsection (g), but that only applies to research with Israel. The crafters of the bill could have solved this problem by adding an amendment to §195c by inserting a new subsection 2(c) to the bill:

(c) Section 317(g) of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 195c) is amended by, after the word “Israel” inserting “, Taiwan, or other nations identified by the Secretary in consultation with the Secretary of State,”.