S 1526 Introduced – NTIA Cybersecurity

Last month, Sen Hickenlooper (D,CO) introduced S 1526, the NTIA Policy and Cybersecurity Coordination Act. The bill would transform the current NTIA Office of Policy Analysis and Development (OPAD) into the Office of Policy and Cybersecurity Coordination. No new funding is authorized by this legislation.

This bill is very nearly identical to HR 1345 that was introduced in March by Rep Curtis (R,UT). Two minor wording changes are the only differences. Neither change would materially change the provisions of the bill. The two differences are:

• On Page 2, line 22, the Senate bill changes ‘the Associate Administrator shall’ to read ‘the Office shall’

• On page 6, line 18, the Senate bill changes ‘date of the enactment’ to read ‘date of enactment’.

Moving Forward

Hickenlooper is a member (Subcommittee Chair), as is his sole cosponsor {Sen Capito (R,WV)} of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Technology Subcommittee to which this bill was assigned. This means that there should be sufficient influence to see this bill considered in Committee. I do not see anything in the language of the bill that would engender any organized opposition. I suspect that there would be some level of bipartisan support for this bill going forward. As with most legislation in the Senate, the question ultimately becomes is the bill important enough to take up the limited time in the Senate for consideration under regular order; I do not think so in this case. I will have to see how the Committee votes on this bill before I can make a reasonable attempt at predicting the chances for consideration under the unanimous consent process.