Rule to Consider Conference Report for HR 5515 – FY 2019 NDA

Last night the House Rules Committee crafted the rule for the consideration of the Conference Report on HR 5515. As is typical with conference reports, there will be limited debate and no amendments will be offered. This should come to the floor today.

We still do not have an official copy of the 2500+ page report. A quick review of the table of contents (which is 36 pages by itself) of the copy the Rules Committee has on their site shows that most of the cyber related provisions of both the House and Senate versions have made it into the final version of the bill. A more detailed analysis will take some time.

House Accepts HR 4310 Conference Report

As expected the House voted yesterday along generally bipartisan lines to agree to the Conference Report on HR 4310, the National Defense Authorization Act FY 2013. The vote was 315 to 107 with 30 Republicans and 77 Democrats voting against the measure.

A unanimous consent agreement was reached in the Senate for consideration of the Conference Report, probably sometime today. There will be one hour of debate and a vote on the measure.

As I noted in an earlier blog post there are a number of cyber related provisions included in the final version of the bill including requirements for defense contractors to report cyber-breaches and provisions for secure development requirements for defense software.

Rules Committee to Look at HR 4310 Conference Report

Today the House Rules Committee web site announced a hearing to be held this afternoon to formulate the Rule for the consideration of the Conference Committee Report on HR 4310, the National Defense Authorization Act of FY 2013. The Report includes language for the revised version of HR 4310 that was adopted by the Conference Committee.

Cybersecurity Provisions

Nothing in the final version of the bill directly addresses industrial control system security, but there are a number of cyber provisions in the bill. They include:

§244. Report on cyber and information technology research investments of the Air Force.

§931. Implementation strategy for Joint Information Environment.

§932. Next-generation host-based cyber security system for the Department of Defense.

§933. Improvements in assurance of computer software procured by the Department of Defense.

§934. Competition in connection with Department of Defense tactical data link systems.

§935. Collection and analysis of network flow data.

§936. Competition for large-scale software database and data analysis tools.

§937. Software licenses of the Department of Defense.

§938. Sense of Congress on potential security risks to Department of Defense networks.

§939. Quarterly cyber operations briefings.

§940. Sense of Congress on the United States Cyber Command.

§941. Reports to Department of Defense on penetrations of networks and information systems of certain contractors.

I have covered most of these in some detail in earlier blog posts on the Committee Report on HR 4310, House floor action on the bill, the introduction of S 3254, and the Senate floor action on that bill. Only two of the House provisions made it to the final bill, §244 and §939. There are two provisions that I cannot find in either the House or Senate versions of the bill (§931 and §936), but neither of them deal with cybersecurity so I did not look real hard for the earlier versions.

The three most significant provisions that will almost certainly have an impact on civilian cybersecurity are found in §932, §933, and §941. The host-based cybersecurity systems developed for DOD will almost certainly affect the development of similar systems for non-defense critical infrastructure systems. The software development security protocols should also migrate well to control system development. Finally, the network penetration reporting requirements will almost certainly find their way into any cybersecurity legislation for critical infrastructure protection.

Moving Forward

The rule reported by the Committee will certainly be a closed rule with no floor amendments allowed. There will be a limited debate; probably 40 minutes. And, when this comes to a floor vote on Thursday evening or Friday it will almost certainly pass with a substantially bipartisan vote.

HR 1540 Rules Committee Hearing Set

This is just a quick note that the House Rules Committee web site reports that there will be the rules hearing on the HR 1540, National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012, tomorrow afternoon. There is a link to the Conference Report on the page as well. I should have a quick review available in the morning. The hearing tomorrow should mean a vote on Wednesday.

HR 2892 Conference Complete

On Wednesday evening the Conference Committee for the DHS 2010 Appropriations bill, completed their work on reconciling the two versions of HR 2892 passed by the House and Senate. While the formal detailed report on the results of their deliberations has not yet been published, they have published a summary of the conference agreement. The agreement splits the difference on the amount budgeted for DHS operations for FY 2010; a total of $42.776 billion. There were a number of provisions included in the reconciled bill that directly impact the chemical security community. They include:

Funding for 100 new surface transportation security inspectors (TSA); A $25 million increase over FY 2009 funding for CFATS including a 168 person increase in staffing; A one year extension for CFATS; A $50 million increase (over requested) in Rail/Transit Security Grants; and A $50 million increase (over requested) in Port Security Grants.

Until I can see the actual revised bill (which might be available on Friday) I can’t tell what odd-ball provisions might have been added to the bill (like the hate crimes legislation that was added to the DOD appropriations bill or the continuing resolution that was added to the legislative appropriations bill). I haven’t heard of anything being added but you can’t tell until you read the final bill. I’ll let you know what I find when I get my hands on a copy of the bill.