Review – S 2049 Introduced – NTIA Cybersecurity Office

Back in June Sen Hickenlooper (D,CO) introduced S 2049, the NTIA Policy and Cybersecurity Coordination Act. The bill would transform the current NTIA Office of Policy Analysis and Development (OPAD) into the Office of Policy and Cybersecurity Coordination. No new funding is authorized by this legislation.

The bill would amend the National Telecommunications and Information Administration Organization Act by adding a new §106, Office of Policy Development and Cybersecurity.

The bill is essentially the same as S 1526 that was introduced last session by Sne Hickenlooper (D,CO), but no action was taken on that bill in the Senate.

Moving Forward

Hickenlooper, along with all three of his cosponsors {Sen Capito (R,WV), Sen Curtis (R,UT), and Sen Blunt-Rochester (D,DE)}, are members of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration. This means that there may be sufficient influence to see the bill considered in Committee. I expect that there will some level of bipartisan support for the bill, but it probably will not be sufficient to allow the bill to be considered by the full Senate under the unanimous consent process. This bill is not politically important enough to take up the Senate’s time under regular order.

 

For more information on the provisions of this bill, as well as a commentary on a possible change in the legislative environment for this bill, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/s-2049-introduced-ntia-cybersecurity - subscription required.