House Passes HR 1709 – Mobile Service Cybersecurity

This afternoon the House took up HR 1709, the Understanding Cybersecurity of Mobile Networks Act, under the suspension of the rules process. After eight minutes of debate a recorded vote was demanded. Later this evening that vote took place and the bill passed by a strongly bipartisan vote of 360 to 10 (61 members not voting).

The bill would require the Department of Commerce to prepare a report to Congress that examines “the cybersecurity of mobile service networks and the vulnerability of such networks and mobile devices to cyberattacks and surveillance conducted by adversaries.” No new money is authorized by this bill.

The bill now moves to the Senate where its future is uncertain at best. While there should also be bipartisan support in that body, the bill is not politically important enough to be considered under regular order, a time-consuming process at best. This leaves two paths to passage in the Senate; considering under the unanimous consent process (but the 10 Republican votes against the bill in the House would suggest that there should be two or three Senators that would object to the bill and thus kill the consideration under this process), or add the language of the bill to another bill that would be important enough to take up under regular order.