Review – Committee Hearings – Week of 4-26-26

 This week, with both the House and Senate in Washington, there is an almost moderately busy hearing schedule. Budget hearings are a large part of the load (some of interest here) and the House Appropriations Committee continues to work on spending bills. There is a CISA SMRA hearing in the House (with a touch of Space Geek thrown in) and a space defense hearing. 

Cybersecurity Hearings  

On Wednesday, the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection of the House Homeland Security Committee will hold a hearing on “Data Centers, Telecommunications Networks, and Space-Based Systems: Modernizing DHS’s SRMA [Sector Risk Management Agency] Role for the Communications and IT Sectors”. 

Space Defense Hearings  

On Wednesday the Subcommittee on Europe of the House Foreign Affairs Committee will hold a hearing on “Orbits of Influence: Emerging Threats to U.S. Space Security and Foreign Policy Implications”.   

For more information on these hearings, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/committee-hearings-week-of-4-26-26 - subscription required. 

Review – Committee Hearings – Week of 4-19-26

 This week, with both the House and the Senate in Washington, there is a moderately busy hearing schedule. Budget hearings (both House and Senate) and spending bill markups (in the House) continue. There are also two Space Geek related hearings in the House. 

Spending Bill Hearings  

House  

Tuesday - Fiscal Year 2027 Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Bill, Fiscal Year 2027 Financial Services and General Government Bill, and Interim Subcommittee Allocations, 

Wednesday - Continuation Of Full Committee Markup Of Fiscal Year 2027 Financial Services And General Government Bill,  

Thursday - Subcommittee Markup Of Fiscal Year 2027 National Security, Department Of State, And Related Programs Bill And Fiscal Year 2027 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food And Drug Administration, And Related Agencies Bill. 

Space Geek Hearings 

On Tuesday, the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology of the House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on “SAT Streamlining Act: Modernizing Satellite Licensing for the Final Frontier”.  

On Wednesday, the House Foreign Affairs Committee will hold a business meeting to consider 22 bills, including HR 8321, the Artemis Accords Authorization Act. 

For more information on these hearings, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/committee-hearings-week-of-4-19-26 - subscription required.

Review – Committee Hearings – Week of 6-1-25

This week with the House and Senate back in Washington, there is a relatively light hearing schedule. While there are still budget hearings scheduled, we have the first two spending bill markups scheduled in subcommittees of the House Appropriations Committee. There is one nomination hearing in the Senate that might be of interest here.

Nomination Hearing

On Thursday the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will hold a business meeting to consider six pending nominations. There are two that may be of specific interest here:

Sean Cairncross to be National Cyber Director, and

Sean Plankey to be Director, CISA

 

For more information on these hearings, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/committee-hearings-week-of-6-1-25 - subscription required.

Reader comment – CSB $0 FY 2026 Budget Request

I received an email today, apparently from a reader (First Last, an interesting way of identifying an anonymous author) pointing me at the FY 2025 Budget Request for the Chemical Safety Board. This is one of the shortest budget documents that I have ever seen, three relatively short paragraphs.

The second paragraph is the most important:

“The President's Budget proposes to eliminate funding for several agencies, including the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, as part of the Administration's plans to move the Nation towards fiscal responsibility and to redefine the proper role of the Federal Government. The President’s Budget proposes $0 for CSB’s FY 2026 budget with the expectation that CSB begins closing down during FY 2025. CSB’s emergency fund of $844,145 will be appropriated to cover costs associated with closing down the agency. Exact closing costs will be determined upon consultation with OMB and Congress.”

This is not the first that Trump has tried to shut down the CSB. He announced the defunding of the Agency in 2017 (for FY 2018 budget). The CSB’s budget request for FY 2018 reported that fact, but went ahead with formally proposing an operating budget for the fiscal year:

“The CSB’s FY 2018 Budget Request is a relatively small federal investment to continue the agency’s valuable work. Yet, the President’s FY 2018 Budget Request proposes the elimination of the CSB and requests a $9.4 million appropriation to provide for the CSB’s orderly shutdown and rescission of the agency’s $844,000 no-year emergency fund. The CSB disagrees with this proposal and is using its bypass budget authority² to request a budget of $11.629 million in FY 2018 to continue the execution of its critical safety mission to drive critical chemical safety change to protect people and the environment.”

That little footnote refers to 42 U.S.C. §7412(r)(6)(R), part of the paragraph (6) that forms the authorizing language for the Chemical Safety Board that provides a clear, detailed statement about the independence of the Board. Subparagraph (R) specifically provides language requiring the CSB to independently submit it’s budget request to Congress. This ‘Budget Request’ falls short of that legal requirement. In fact, the third paragraph makes me believe that this is a DOGE budget page, not one authorized by the Board:

“CSB duplicates substantial capabilities in the Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to investigate chemical-related mishaps. CSB generates unprompted studies of the chemical industry and recommends policies that they have no authority to create or enforce. This function should reside within agencies that have authorities to issue regulations in accordance with applicable legal standards.”

A quick reminder, in 2017 Congress approved funding for the CSB, over the objections of the President. It will be interesting to see if that occurs again. Technically, the President cannot disband the CSB since it is authorized in law (without a sunset provision, by the way) and it would take legislation to change that law.

Review – Committee Hearings – Week of 5-18-25

With the House and Senate both in Washington, there is a moderately busy hearing schedule with continued focus on budget hearings. In the House we also have an oversight hearing for the TSA. In the Senate there will be hearings on counter UAS operations and a markup hearing. The House will be taking up one bill under suspension that is of interest here.

Budget Hearings

The following budget hearing of interest will be held this week:

Budget Hearings	House	Senate
EPA	Appropriations	Environment
DHS		Homeland
DOE		Appropriations

TSA Oversight

On Tuesday the Subcommittee on Homeland Security of the House Appropriations Committee will hold an oversight hearing on “Oversight Hearing – The Transportation Security Administration”.

cUAS

On Tuesday the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on “Defending Against Drones: Setting Safeguards for Counter Unmanned Aircraft Systems Authorities”. 

Markup Hearing

On Wednesday the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee will hold a business meeting to consider nominations and eight bills. Of specific interest here will be:

S 318, the ANCHOR Act.

On the Floor

The House is scheduled to take up HR 1223, the ANCHOR Act, today under the suspension of the rules process.

For more information on these hearings, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/committee-hearings-week-of-5-18-25 - subscription required.

Committee Hearings – Week of 5-13-24

This week, with both the House and Senate in session, there is a relatively busy hearing schedule. FY 2025 budget hearings continue in the oversight committees. There is one markup hearing of note, a Chinese security risk hearing and UAS use hearing.

Budget Hearings

	House	Senate
EPA	EC Subcommittee
TSA	HS Subcommittee
NTIA	EC Subcommittee
DOD Acquisitions		APP Subcommittee

Note: There is a problem with the links to the Senate Appropriations Committee this morning.

Markup Hearing

On Wednesday, the House Oversight and Accountability Committee will hold a markup hearing to consider six bills and three postal naming bills. The one bill of specific interest here is:

HR 5255: "To require covered contractors implement a vulnerability disclosure policy consistent with NIST guidelines, and for other purposes."

Chinese Threat Hearing

On Wednesday the Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation Subcommittee of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee will hold a hearing on “Red Alert: Countering the Cyberthreat from China”. The witness list includes:

• Charles Carmakal, Mandiant,

• William Evanina, Former Director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center,

• Rob Joyce, Former Special Assistant to the President and White House Cyber Security Coordinator,

• Steven M. Kelly, Institute for Security and Technology

Expect some FUD pointing by committee members.

UAS Uses

On Thursday the Subcommittee on Emergency Management and Technology, and the Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Law Enforcement, and Intelligence, both of the House Homeland Security Committee will hold a joint hearing on “Unmanned Aerial Systems: An Examination of the Use of Drones in Emergency Response”. No witness list is currently available.

Without a witness list it is hard to tell, but there is a possibility that UAS cybersecurity issues could be part of this topic.

On the Floor

The House will consider a relatively large number of bills on Tuesday (votes lasting through Wednesday) under their suspension of the rules process this week. Of interest here, this will include:

HR 4510 – NTIA Reauthorization Act of 2024, as amended,

HR 7659 – Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2024, as amended, and

Senate Amendment to HR 3935 – FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024.

Committee Hearings – Week of 4-29-24

This week, with both the House and Senate back in Washington, there is a moderately heavy hearing schedule in both bodies. Budget hearings continue, moving into the final stages in the respective appropriations subcommittees. There is also a hearing on CISA’s notice of proposed rulemaking for the implementation of the cybersecurity reporting requirements of Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act (CIRCIA).

FY 2025 Budget Hearings

	House	Senate
EPA	Approp Subcommittee	Approp Subcommittee
DOT	Approp Subcommittee	Approp Subcommittee
CISA	Approp Subcommittee
Coast Guard	Approp Subcommittee

CIRCIA Hearing

On Wednesday, the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection of the House Homeland Security Committee will hold a hearing on “Surveying CIRCIA: Sector Perspectives On The Notice Of Proposed Rulemaking”. The witness list includes:

• Heather Hogsett, Bank Policy Institute,

• Scott Aaronson, Edison Electric Institute,

• Robert Mayer, The Broadband Association, and

• Amit Elazari, OpenPolicy Group

Committee Hearings – Week of 4-14-24

This week, with both the House and Seante in session, there is a moderately busy hearing schedule. This includes a number of budget hearings as a part of the start of the certainly to be contentious FY 2025 spending process. There is one cybersecurity hearing looking at medical cybersecurity issues.

Budget Hearings

Budget Hearings	House	Senate
FEMA	Approp Subcommittee
DHS	Homeland Sec	Homeland Sec
TSA	Approp Subcommittee
DOD	Approp Subcommittee
DOE		Energy & Commer

Cybersecurity Hearing

Today, the Health Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on “Examining Health Sector Cybersecurity in the Wake of the Change Healthcare Attack”. The witness list includes:

• Greg Garcia, Healthcare Sector Coordinating Council,

• Robert Sheldon, CrowdStrike,

• John Riggi, American Hospital Association,

• Scott MacLean, College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME), and

• Dr. Adam Bruggeman, MD, Texas Spine Center

I do not expect much discussion about medical device cybersecurity.

Committee Hearings – Week of 4-7-24

With the House and Senate returning from a two week break, there is a moderately light hearing schedule. Budget hearings continue the start of the FY 2025 spending cycle. There is a water system cybersecurity hearing this week in the Senate.

Budget Hearings

Budget Hearings	House	Senate
DHS	Approp Subcommittee	Approp Subcommittee
Cyber Command	Armed Ser Subcommittee	Armed Services
DHS – Member	Approp Subcommittee
Armed Services		Armed Services

Cybersecurity Hearing

On Wednesday the Water and Power Subcommittee of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will hold a hearing on “Examine the Federal and Non-Federal Role of Assessing Cyber Threats to and Vulnerabilities of Critical Water Infrastructure in our Energy Sector”. The witness list includes:

• Terry Turpin, FERC,

• Virginia Wright, INL,

• Scott Aaronson, EEI

While an impressive array of cybersecurity experts, it seems to me that they may have less cogent input on cybersecurity for water systems as their expertise is focused on the national grid. Wrights leadership of the INL's cyberinformed engineering work may be the most important input.

Committee Hearings – Week of 3-17-24

This week, with the House and Senate both in session, there is a relatively heavy hearing schedule. Budget hearings are starting the FY 2025 spending cycle. And there are a lot of markup hearings with three of particular interest here. There will also be an oversight hearing on the DHS cWMD office.

Budget Hearings:

The FY 2025 spending process starts this week with budget hearings. I do not cover these much anymore since Presidential Budgets have been ‘dead on arrival’ for almost a decade now, but they do deserve, at least, mention in passing.

Budget Hearings	House	Senate
DOE	3-20-24 E&C
SBA		3-20-24 SBC

Markup Hearings

Energy and Commerce Committee markup hearing – 3-20-24 – 28 bills:

HR 7655, Pipeline Safety, Modernization, and Expansion Act of 2024, and

HR 7589, Removing Our Unsecure Technologies to Ensure Reliability and Security (ROUTERS) Act

Transportation and Infrastructure Committee markup hearing – 3-20-24 – 2 bills:

HR 7659, the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2024

Science, Space, and Technology Committee markup hearing – 3-20-24  - 8 bills:

HR 7073, Next Generation Pipelines Research and Development Act

WMD Hearing

On Wednesday, the Subcommittee on Emergency Management and Technology of the House Homeland Security Committee will hold a hearing on “Securing our Nation from WMDs: A Review of the Department of Homeland Security's Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office”. The witness list includes:

• Mary Ellen Callahan, DHS,

• Tina Won Sherman, GAO, and

• Herbert Wolfe, DHS

On the Floor

With an overall agreement reportedly reached on the 2^nd Minibus spending bill (including DHS and DOD), there is a good chance that the bill will come to the floor of the House this week, but it seems unlikely that it will be able to clear both houses before the midnight Friday deadline to keep the government funded. Politicians may risk a technical shutdown over some of the weekend if they think that the House and Senate can finish the bill by Sunday, but it is more likely that there will be yet again a short-term continuing resolution to allow the political posturing in both the House and Senate to run its course.

Committee Hearings – Week of 3-26-23

This week, with both the House and Senate in Washington, there is a relatively heavy hearing schedule. A major focus remains on budget hearings, but we also have two cybersecurity related hearings, one oversight hearing, a markup hearing, and another look at the East Palestine derailment.

Budget Hearings

Budget Hearing	House	Senate
NSA	Intel Subcommittee
CISA	Appropriations Subcommittee
TSA	Appropriations Subcommittee
EPA	Appropriations Subcommittee
DOD	Armed Services Committee	Armed Services Committee
DHS	HS Committee
FDA	Appropriations Subcommittee

Cybersecurity

On Wednesday, the Cybersecurity Subcommittee of the Senate Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing on “To Receive Testimony on Enterprise Cybersecurity to Protect the Department of Defense Information Networks”. The witness list includes:

• John B. Sherman, DOD CIO, and

• LTG Robert J. Skinner, USAF

Probably very little discussion about operational technology issues.

On Thursday, the Cyber, Information Technologies, and Innovation Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing on “Cyberspace Operations: Conflict in the 21st Century”. The witness list includes:

• John F. Plumb, DOD,

• Gen Nakasone, Cyber Command

Again, probably very little discussion about OT technology issues.

DHS Oversight

On Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on “Oversight of the Department of Homeland Security”. No witness list is currently available, so it is hard to tell where the focus will be in this hearing.

Markup Hearing

On Wednesday, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will hold a business meeting that will include markups of 28 bills, five of which have not yet been introduced. Bills of potential interest here include:

S. ___, Securing Open Source Software Act of 2023,

S. ___, Reporting Efficiently to Proper Officials in Response to Terrorism (REPORT) Act,

S. 885, DHS Civilian Cybersecurity Reserve,

Derailment Hearing

On Tuesday, the Environment, Manufacturing, and Critical Minerals Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on “Government Response to East Palestine: Ensuring Safety and Transparency for the Community”. The witness list includes:

• Debra Shore, EPA,

• Wesley Vins, Columbiana County General Health District, and

• Anne M. Vogel, Ohio EPA

On the Floor

The House will be considering HR 1 this week, the Republican’s signature energy bill. While the Republicans criticized large omnibus type bills, this is a typical politically-focused conglomerate of 17 previously introduced bills that we have come to expect from the House of Representatives. 153 amendments have been proposed to the House Rules Committee. The Committee will meet today to decide which amendment will be considered on the floor. Only two of those amendments may be of potential interest here:

#102 Ocasio-Cortez (D,NY) - Prevents oil and gas companies that have been found responsible for chemical spills or environmental disasters in the past 20 years from accessing reduced royalty rates.

#147 Schiff (D,CA) - Directs the Secretary of Energy to create a task force that would work with frontline communities to examine the environmental and public health impacts of petrochemical refineries, including local, global, and cumulative impacts. Requires the task force to research alternative options for energy security and offer recommendations to improve energy security in the United States.