Committee Hearings – Week of 1-14-24

This week, with both the House and Senate in Session, there is a relatively light hearing schedule in Congress. There is one hearing of interest here, a Senate hearing on the Cyber Safety Review Board. Floor actions on spending could get interesting.

CSRB Hearing

On Wednesday, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will hold a hearing on “The Cyber Safety Review Board: Expectations, Outcomes, and Enduring Questions”. This hearing was originally scheduled for December 14^th, 2023, but it was postponed at that time. The witness list includes:

• Tarah M. Wheeler, Red Queen Dynamics,

• John Miller, Information Technology Industry Council, and

• Trey Herr, Atlantic Council

The Cyber Safety Review Board was established by §5 of EO 14028. That EO requires DHS to “convene the Board following a significant cyber incident triggering the establishment of a Cyber Unified Coordination Group”. DHS has indicated that they would like to see the Board formally established, and has offered proposed legislation to that end.

Artemis Hearing in Passing

On Wednesday, the Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee will hold a hearing on: “Returning to the Moon: Keeping Artemis on Track”. I am not covering space activities as a new topic here, but I thought that I would mention this hearing in passing.

On the Floor

Early this evening, the Senate is scheduled to hold a cloture vote on beginning consideration of HR 2872. As I noted yesterday, this bill is going to be the vehicle for a relatively short period continuing resolution through March. While this CR has the support of the leadership of the House and Senate as well as a bipartisan majority in each, there will be some significant Republican opposition in both houses. This could bring delays in both, but there is a deadline of Friday to avoid the shutdown of about a third (by some measures) of the federal government. There will be lots of posturing, on and off the Hill, on the proceedings for this bill.

 

NOTE: The House is currently scheduled to be working from home districts next week. That could change if there is a hiccup on HR 2872.