HR 4091 Reported in House – ARPA-E Reauthorization

Last week the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee published their report on HR 4091, the ARPA-E Reauthorization Act of 2019. The Committee hearing on this bill was held on October 17^th, 2020 where the bill was amended and adopted by a voice vote.

A look at the ‘Cosponsors’ page for this bill on Congress.gov shows exactly how politically successful the changes were that were made by Chair Johnson in the substitute language for the bill. Principally, those changes were a reduction in the large increase in annual spending authorization through 2024. Republicans had objected to the very-large proposed increase and were threatening to withhold support for the bill. The reductions found in the substitute language were significant enough that 24 Republicans have since signed on as cosponsors of the bill.

This new support ensures that this bill could be considered under the suspension of rules procedure in the House and indicate that there might be enough support in the Senate to have this bill added to Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies spending bill if/when that is introduced. This bill is not important enough to be considered in the Senate on its own (particularly in a COVID-19 affected election year) and there is still enough Republican opposition to the revised spending increase to ensure that it could not be considered under the Senate’s unanimous consent rule.

Senate ENR Amends and Approves Cybersecurity Bills – 11-19-19

Yesterday the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee held a business meeting to consider three nominations and markup 19 bills. Those bills included three cybersecurity bills that have been covered in this blog. All three of those bills were amended and then passed on voice votes.

S 876, DOE Vet Training

The Committee considered S 875, the Energy Jobs for Our Heroes Act of 2019. A staff amendment was adopted by the Committee rewrote the proposed §1107(f) by removing the grant funding provisions and removed (g) the spending authorization provisions of the bill. A second amendment was proposed by Sen Lee (R,UT) and it was also adopted by the Committee. The Lee amendment provided more detailed information about what was to be included in the Report to Congress required by (h) {changed to (g) by the previous amendment}.

S 2556, Cybersecurity Investment

The Committee considered S 2556, the PROTECT Act. The Committee adopted an amendment in the nature of a substitute. The substitute language:

Adds §219A(c)(2) that adds a prohibition of duplicate recovery to the rate recovery provision; and

Adds §3(a)(2)(E) that adds “an investor-owned electric utility that sells less than 4,000,000 megawatt hours of electricity per year” to the list of entities eligible for the e Rural and Municipal Utility Advanced Cybersecurity Grant and Technical Assistance Program.

S 2714, ARPA-E Reauthorization

The Committee considered S 2714, the ARPA–E Reauthorization Act of 2019. The Committee adopted an amendment. That amendment inserted a new §2(c) and renumbered the subsequent sub-sections. The new subsection amends 42 USC 16538(f). The new language would allow DOE to consider past grant performance during the award of new grants.

Moving Forward

These three bills had significant bipartisan support in Committee, but Lee insisted on being recorded as a Nay vote on each of the bills. This means that he would be likely to raise an objection if the bills were offered for consideration under the Senate’s unanimous consent process. If that were to happen the bills would not be adopted under those provisions and would have to be considered under regular order. None of these bills is important enough to take up the Senate’s time under regular order.

The only other way that these bills could be considered would be as part of a DOE authorization bill.

Committee Hearings – Week of 11-17-19

This week the impeachment hearings continue to attract the main attention of politicians and, to a lesser extent, the public. There are two markup hearings this week; one in the House that will deal with a pipeline safety bill, and one in the senate that will address cybersecurity bills.

Pipeline Safety Hearings

On Tuesday the House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a markup hearing that will consider 18 bills. One of those bills is HR 5120 that was introduced last Friday. The official version of the bill has yet to be printed, but a Committee Print is available and a summary is included in the Committee Briefing Notes. I have not yet had a chance to review the bill.

Cybersecurity Hearing

On Tuesday the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will hold a business meeting that will consider 17 bills and three nominations. The list includes 3 cybersecurity related bills:

S 876, to amend the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to require the Secretary of Energy to establish a program to prepare veterans for careers in the energy industry, including the solar, wind, cybersecurity, and other low-carbon emissions sectors or zero-emissions sectors of the energy industry;

S 2556, to amend the Federal Power Act to provide energy cybersecurity investment incentives, to establish a grant and technical assistance program for cybersecurity investments;

S 2714, to amend the America COMPETES Act to reauthorize the ARPA-E program,

On the Floor

On Tuesday the House will consider HR 4634; Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2019 (as amended) under the suspension of the rules process. This means that there will be limited debate, no floor amendments and a super majority will be required for passage. A significant bipartisan majority is expected on this bill.

It is likely that the House Rules Committee will take up a continuing resolution some time this week to continue funding the government, probably through sometime next month.

S 2714 Introduced – ARPA-E Reauthorization

Last week Sen Van Hollen (D,MD) introduced S 2714, the ARPA–E Reauthorization Act of 2019. The bill is very similar to HR 4091 that was adopted in Committee last month.

The Senate version of the bill does not include the radioactive waste addition to the ARPA-E goals (42 USC 16538(c) that was included in the House version, but it did include the broad ‘security’ provision that I discussed in my post about the introduction of HR 4091.

Most of the other changes to §16538 made by this version of the bill are similar to those made in the House version. The spending authorizations are the same as were included in the managers amendment to HR 4091 that was included in the Committee’s approval of that bill.

Moving Forward

Van Hollen is not a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration. His one cosponsor, Sen Alexander (R,TN), is, however, so it is reasonable to suspect that this bill could be considered in Committee. I would suspect that it would receive the same bipartisan support as was seen in the House for HR 4091.

As I noted earlier today, this bill was included in the list of bills that will be addressed tomorrow in a legislative hearing before the Committee. That does not mean that the bill will automatically be considered in a markup, but it is very likely.

Bills Introduced – 10-28-19

Yesterday with both the House and Senate in session there were 48 bills introduced. Three of those bills may receive future coverage in this blog:

HR 4891 To provide for the conduct of certain water security measures in the Western United States, and for other purposes. Rep. Torres Small, Xochitl [D-NM-2]

S 2714 A bill to amend the America COMPETES Act to reauthorize the ARPA-E program, and for other purposes. Sen. Van Hollen, Chris [D-MD]

S 2718 A bill to provide for the conduct of certain water security measures in the State of New Mexico, and for other purposes. Sen. Udall, Tom [D-NM] 

I suspect that the ‘water security measures’ referenced in HR 4891 and S 2718 are related to ‘supply security’ not physical or cyber security of the water systems.

HR 4091 Amended and Adopted in Committee – ARPA-E Reauthorization

Yesterday the House Science, Space and Technology Committee marked up HR 4091, the ARPA–E Reauthorization Act of 2019. Two amendments were offered, one was adopted, and the bill was adopted by a voice vote.

Amendments

Rep Foster (D,IL) proposed an amendment creating the position of Chief Evaluation Officer. The amendment was withdrawn.

Rep. Johnson (D,TX) proposed a manager’s amendment that made three relatively minor changes to the bill:

• Added a provision to the annual report requirement;

• Amended the ‘Coordination and Non-Duplication; requirements of 42 USC 16538(i)(1); and

• Decreased the authorized ARPA-E spending for 20210 thru 2024.

Moving Forward

Once the Committee Report for the bill is published, this bill will almost certainly move to the floor of the House under the suspension of the rules process. There would be limited floor debate, no amendments from the floor and a super-majority would be required for passage. The bill will receive sufficient bipartisan support to pass in the House.

HR 4091 Introduced – ARPA-E Reauthorization

Last month Rep. Johnson (D,TX) introduced HR 4091, the ARPA–E Reauthorization Act of 2019. In addition to reauthorizing the DOE Advanced Research Projects Agency—Energy, it expands the goals of ARPA-E to include security.

Security Goal

The bill would amend 42 USC 16538(c)(1)(A) by adding a new subparagraph (v):

(v) improve the resilience, reliability, and security of infrastructure to produce, deliver, and store energy; and

There is no other discussion of ‘security’ within the bill and no definitions are provided.

Moving Forward

Johnson is the Chair of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration. There are 29 cosponsors to the bill; only two of those are Republicans and neither are on the Committee.

The bill was considered by the Energy Subcommittee yesterday and ordered reported favorably to the full Committee by a voice vote. One amendment was considered; a Republican amendment to reduce the amounts of monies authorized for Energy Transformation Acceleration Fund. The amendment failed on a voice vote.

Commentary

It would make some sense to me that when adding a goal to an agency mission one should ensure that the purpose of that goal is clearly defined. With that in mind, I would like to propose the addition of the following definition to §16538:

Section 16538(a) is amended by adding subparagraph (4):

“(4) Security – The term ‘security’ means measures undertaken to prevent, identify or respond to:

(i) unauthorized physical access to facilities;

(ii) the unauthorized application of force against, or direction of energy at, a facility with the intent to disrupt operations of the facility; or

(iii) to protect against cybersecurity threats as that term is defined in 6 USC 1501.

This definition would make it clear that AREPA-E funded investigations could address the full range of security measure to protect energy product, storage or transmission facilities, including measures to prevent/mitigate cyberattacks and electromagnetic pulse attacks.

Bills Introduced – 07-30-19

On Tuesday with the Senate in Washington and the House meeting in proforma session, there were 94 bills introduced. Three of those bills may receive additional coverage here in this blog:

HR 4091 To amend the America COMPETES Act to reauthorize the ARPA-E program, and for other purposes. Rep. Johnson, Eddie Bernice [D-TX-30]

S 2318 A bill to amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to authorize the Secretary of Homeland Security to establish a continuous diagnostics and mitigation program in the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency of the Department of Homeland Security, and for other purposes. Sen. Cornyn, John [R-TX]

S 2333 A bill to provide for enhanced energy grid security. Sen. Cantwell, Maria [D-WA] 

I will be watching HR 4091 to see if it includes language specifically authorizing grid cybersecurity research programs.

I will be watching S 2318 to see if it includes authorization to provide CDM coverage to private sector critical infrastructure facilities.