Review - S 4630 Introduced – Cybersecurity Harmonization

Earlier this month, Sen Peters (D,MI) introduced S 4630, the Streamlining Federal Cybersecurity Regulations Act. The bill would require the National Cyber Director to “establish an interagency committee to be known as the Harmonization Committee to enhance the harmonization of cybersecurity requirements that are applicable within the United States.” In turn, the Committee would be required to “develop a regulatory framework for achieving harmonization of the cybersecurity requirements of each regulatory agency.” No funding is authorized by this legislation.

Moving Forward

This bill was supposed to be considered by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee last week. Only one bill was actually considered in that meeting. The meeting was adjourned to a date to be determined by the Chair. I suspect that the bill will have some level of bipartisan support. Unfortunately, as with most bills introduced in the Senate, this bill is not politically important enough to take up the time of the Senate necessary for consideration under regular order. There will be some opposition to the bill, so it will not be a good candidate being taken up under the Senate’s unanimous consent process.

Commentary

The inclusion of OIRA on the Harmonization Committee was designed to ensure that rulemakings submitted to that office for pre-publication review, appropriately reflect adherence to the regulatory framework developed by the Committee. While that adherence review is appropriate, there is nothing in this bill that would require agencies to discuss the framework in the preamble to notices of proposed rulemakings and final rules published in the Federal Register. Requiring such discussions would make the process more transparent to the public and regulated communities. Unfortunately, adding this to the bill would require a substantial re-write to add amendments to 5 USC Chapters 5 and 7.

 

For more information about the provisions of this legislation, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/s-4630-introduced - subscription required.