Committee Hearings – Week of 9-3-23

With the Senate returning to Washington this week (the House next week), there is a fairly lite hearing schedule. There are two hearings that may touch on cybersecurity issues, one for the water sector and the other for the energy sector.

Water Cybersecurity

On Thursday, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will hold a hearing on “Implementing IIJA: Perspectives on The Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Act, Part II”. The witness list includes:

• Elizabeth Biser, North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality,

• Kishia L. Powell, Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC Water), and

• Eric Volk, North Dakota Rural Water Systems Association

The IIJA is the ‘Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act’  (PL 117-58) and the ‘Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Act’ is Division E of that Act. Section 50113 added 42 USC 300g–10, Cybersecurity Support for Public Water Systems. So cybersecurity topics could come up in the discussion.

Energy Cybersecurity

On Thursday, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will hold a hearing on “Full Committee Hearing to Examine Recent Advances in Artificial Intelligence and the Department of Energy’s Role in Ensuring U.S. Competitiveness and Security in Emerging Technologies”. No witness list is available.

Again, AI cybersecurity may be an ancillary topic in the discussion.

Spending Bills

With the end of the fiscal year fast approaching, the question on everyone’s mind is: Can Congress pass spending bills (or a CR) in time to avoid a shutdown? Since the House has to initiate spending bills, the Senate is mostly waiting for the dust to settle in the House before it does much beyond posturing. The House did pass HR 4366, the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2024, on July 27^th, 2023. That means that there is a chance that the Senate could take up that bill this week.