Bills Introduced – 7-9-24

Yesterday, with both the House and Senate in session, there were 45 bills introduced. Two of those bills will receive additional coverage in this blog:

HR 8958 To reauthorize the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and for other purposes. Lucas, Frank D. [Rep.-R-OK-3]

HR 8965 To promote the development of certain plans, policies, and standards for managing cybersecurity risks and protecting sensitive technology relating to National Aeronautics and Space Administration spacecraft systems, and for other purposes. Frost, Maxwell [Rep.-D-FL-10] 

While I will probably cover HR 8958 under my increasing Space Geek coverage, I will also be looking at language and definitions that specifically address cybersecurity issues.

I would like to mention two bills in passing:

S 4648 A bill to require the President to establish a task force on streamlining the classified national security information system and narrowing of the criteria for classification of information, to make improvements with respect to such classification system, and for other purposes. Peters, Gary C. [Sen.-D-MI] 

S Res 755 A resolution designating June 2024 as National Cybersecurity Education Month. Passed in Senate by unanimous consent.

S 4648 is part of a continuing ineffective effort to bring some measure of control to the classified information problem in Washington. While there are certainly good and legitimate reasons for keeping many types of defense information out of the public sphere, it has proven very difficult (impossible in my opinion) to stop the classification system from being used to hide malfeasance, incompetence, and even just petty mistakes. Without requiring an independent review of every document classification discission (an admittedly unworkable idea), the classified information system is going to be misused on a massive scale. If (a BIG IF) artificial intelligence systems were effective and reliable, they might be considered for use as an automatic review system for document classification, but I do not see this happening anytime in the foreseeable future.

And, as if we needed any further indication about the inefficiency of Congress, S 755 shows how time sensitive the legislature really is. Ten days into July and the Senate is just now getting around to honoring June 2024 as National Cybersecurity Education Month. Fortunately, these resolutions have no practical effect, even if passed in a more timely manner, but still the Senate did use some of their resources to publish and pass this resolution (and two other – S Res 756 and S Res 757 – untimely resolutions). BTW, the text of the resolution is not yet available on Congress.gov.