Review - S 2388 Introduced – Cyber Circuit Rider Program

Last month, Sen Cortez-Masto (D,NV) introduced S 2388, the Cybersecurity for Rural Water Systems Act. The bill would require USDA to establish a rural water and wastewater cybersecurity circuit rider program” similar to the one established in 7 USC 1926(a)(22), but focused on cybersecurity. The bill would authorize $10-million per year through 2028 to support the program.

This bill is similar in intent to HR 3809, the Cybersecurity for Rural Water Systems Act of 2023. That bill would add cybersecurity to the existing circuit rider program. This bill would establish a separate, standalone entity.

Moving Forward

Neither Cortez-Masto nor her sole co-sponsor {Sen Rounds (R,ND)} are members of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration. This means that it is unlikely that there is sufficient influence to see the bill considered in Committee. Adding $10-million dollars in spending is sure to draw opposition from many Republicans, but there may still be sufficient bipartisan support in the Committee to see the bill approved if it were considered.

As with most bills, there would not be sufficient interest in this legislation to see the Senate leadership tie up the Senate for the time that it would be necessary to consider this bill under regular order. Because of the added spending involved, it would not be possible to pass this bill under the Senate’s unanimous consent process; it would take just a single Senator to object to passage of the bill to kill consideration.

Commentary

While a cybersecurity add-on to the current circuit rider program would benefit from the existing administrative functions of the program, it could suffer from internal conflicts over resources. A stand-alone program would avoid those potential problems. The $2.5 million in additional funding in this bill would presumably go to pay for the administrative support.

 

The current circuit rider program has about 147 personnel periodically helping small water systems and small wastewater treatment systems. CISA reports about 153,000 water treatment facilities in the US with the vast majority (93 % by one estimate -pg 3) being small systems that would be covered by the circuit rider program. That means that each circuit rider would have to cover about 1,000 systems. They do not get around very often.

 

For more details about the provisions of this bill, including a slightly expanded commentary, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/s-2388-introduced - subscription required.