Review - Committee Hearings – Week of 9-15-24

This week, with both the House and Senate in session, there is a relatively light hearing schedule this week. There are no hearings of interest here in the House (they are concentrating on Biden Administration bashing) this week. In the Senate we have a homeland security markup hearing (with three cybersecurity bills) and an aviation cybersecurity hearing (along with some Biden-support hearings). While not currently on the schedule, a continuing resolution to keep the Federal government funded past September 30^th will have to pass sometime in the next two weeks. Legislative drama is expected.

 

For more information on these hearings, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/committee-hearings-week-of-9-15-24 - subscription required.

HSGA Committee Announces Continuation of Markup Hearing – 7-31-24

Today, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee announced that it had rescheduled last week’s business meeting for Wednesday. Last week’s meeting only ended up covering one bill (S 1171, the ETHICS Act) out of the 33 scheduled. There are three bills of interest here that are on the list of bills to be considered:

S 4630, Streamlining Federal Cybersecurity Regulations Act,

S 4697, Healthcare Cybersecurity Act of 2024, and

S 4715, Federal Cyber Workforce Training Act of 2024.

UAS Use Hearing – 5-16-24

Earlier today, in reporting on Congressional Hearings, I noted that without “a witness list it is hard to tell, but there is a possibility that UAS cybersecurity issues could be part of this topic.” Well, a witness list has since been published for Thursday’s hearing. It includes:

• John M. Chell, New York City Police Department,

• Kaz Daughtry, New York City Police Department,

• Kevin Fetterman, Orange County Fire Authority,

• Michael Robbins, Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International, and

• Rahul Sidhu, Aerodome

It looks like Robbins and Sidhu were selected as witnesses for the technical background their organizations bring to the UAS as first responders topic. Robbins, in particular has been working on UAS cybersecurity issues with CISA. It will be interesting to see if his testimony addresses the topic.

The controlling factor for this hearing is if the committee staff has prepped any of the Members to ask cybersecurity related questions. If so, this could be an interesting hearing, but do not hold your breath.

Some questions that I would like to see asked:

• How much will GPS spoofing or jamming affect UAS use beyond visual line of site?

• How often will RF signal dead spaces in urban areas interfere with UAS response?

• Will UAS vendors be proactive in notifying emergency response organizations about UAS cybersecurity vulnerabilities?

• How will emergency response teams respond to counter UAS technology used against friendly drones?

Committee Hearings – Week of 5-5-24

This week, with both the House and Senate in session, there is a relatively lite hearing schedule. The budget hearings continue in the House, and the Senate Armed Services Committee begins the hearing process to craft the FY 2025 National Defense Authorization Act. None of those hearings are of particular interest here.

The Senate resumes consideration of on HR 3935, the Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act, tomorrow. As I mentioned Friday, the current authorization runs out on Friday and the Senate is unlikely to complete consideration of the bill by then. This means that a short-term reauthorization bill is likely. That is reflected in a comment on the weekly House schedule:

“An additional item related to FAA reauthorization is expected.”

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.

Water Cybersecurity Hearing Added – 1-31-24

This afternoon, the House Energy and Commerce Committee announced that its Subcommittee on Environment, Manufacturing, and Critical Materials would hold a hearing on Wednesday on “Ensuring the Cybersecurity of America’s Drinking Water Systems’. The witness list includes:

• Scott Dewhirst, Tacoma Water (testimony),

• Kevin Morley, American Water Works Association (testimony), and

• Cathy Tucker-Vogel, Kansas Department of Health and Environment (testimony)

It is unusual for witness testimony to be published this far in advance of the scheduled hearing, but I hope that the Subcommittee staff and member’s staffs are taking advantage of the early publication to prepare for some intelligent questions for these three industry representatives.

What is clear from a quick review of the testimony’s is that these three witnesses are experienced in managing cybersecurity issues. And that is a valuable point of view for hearings like this. But there is a difference between ‘managing cybersecurity issues’ and working on the application of cybersecurity measures to drinking water control systems. It would have been instructive to add at least one witness with hands-on cybersecurity application experience. Oh well, this still should be an interesting hearing.

Committee Hearings – Week of 9-3-23

With the Senate returning to Washington this week (the House next week), there is a fairly lite hearing schedule. There are two hearings that may touch on cybersecurity issues, one for the water sector and the other for the energy sector.

Water Cybersecurity

On Thursday, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will hold a hearing on “Implementing IIJA: Perspectives on The Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Act, Part II”. The witness list includes:

• Elizabeth Biser, North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality,

• Kishia L. Powell, Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC Water), and

• Eric Volk, North Dakota Rural Water Systems Association

The IIJA is the ‘Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act’  (PL 117-58) and the ‘Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Act’ is Division E of that Act. Section 50113 added 42 USC 300g–10, Cybersecurity Support for Public Water Systems. So cybersecurity topics could come up in the discussion.

Energy Cybersecurity

On Thursday, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will hold a hearing on “Full Committee Hearing to Examine Recent Advances in Artificial Intelligence and the Department of Energy’s Role in Ensuring U.S. Competitiveness and Security in Emerging Technologies”. No witness list is available.

Again, AI cybersecurity may be an ancillary topic in the discussion.

Spending Bills

With the end of the fiscal year fast approaching, the question on everyone’s mind is: Can Congress pass spending bills (or a CR) in time to avoid a shutdown? Since the House has to initiate spending bills, the Senate is mostly waiting for the dust to settle in the House before it does much beyond posturing. The House did pass HR 4366, the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2024, on July 27^th, 2023. That means that there is a chance that the Senate could take up that bill this week.

Committee Hearings – Week of 6-18-23

This week, with both the House and Senate in Washington for a holiday shortened week, there is a heavy schedule as the Legislature gets down to money business. The twelve spending bills continue moving forward. The NDAA is in the Subcommittee stage in the Senate and the House Armed Services Committee will markup their bill on Wednesday. Two other hearings of interest here include another markup and a cyber workforce hearing.

Spending Bills

In the House, the Full Committee will hold markup hearings on:

Wednesday, Homeland Security and Legislative Branch Bills, Full Committee, Committee Print,

Thursday, Financial Services and General Government Bill, Full Committee,

Thursday, Defense and Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Bills, Full Committee.

This week, with both the House and Senate in Washington for a holiday shortened week, there is a heavy schedule as the Legislature gets down to money business. The twelve spending bills continue moving forward. The NDAA is in the Subcommittee stage in the Senate and the House Armed Services Committee will markup their bill on Wednesday. Two other hearings of interest here include another markup and a cyber workforce hearing.

Spending Bills

In the House, the Full Committee will hold markup hearings on:

Wednesday, Homeland Security and Legislative Branch Bills, Full Committee, Committee Print,

Thursday, Financial Services and General Government Bill, Full Committee,

Thursday, Defense and Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Bills, Full Committee.

On Thursday, The Senate Appropriations Committee will hold their first markup of FY 2024 spending bills, starting with Military Construction and the ARD bills.

We should start to see House spending bills being introduced this week.

Markup Hearing

On Wednesday, the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee will hold a markup hearing for three bills. One of those bills may be of interest here, HR 4090, Fire Grants, and Safety Act. The Committee Print for the bill shows a clean reauthorization of the US Fire Administration. It will be interesting to see what changes are made on Wednesday.

Cyber Workforce

On Thursday, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection Subcommittee of the House Homeland Security Committee will hold a hearing on “Growing the National Cybersecurity Talent Pipeline”. No witness list is currently available.

On the Floor

There is nothing scheduled this week on the floor of the House of particular interest here. Today the House will consider three bills under the suspension of the rules process. It will not be until Wednesday that we may (maybe not) see the Eleven throw their effective veto around on a rule vote (again for Republican messaging bills that will not likely go anywhere in any case). It depends on if their egos have been properly stroked by the Speaker. This will be the weekly guessing game until they are again slammed up against the reality of passing spending bills or more likely a continuing resolution in late September. The more often they flex their limited muscle between now and then, the less likely will be the support of their moderate Republican compatriots in an ouster of the Speaker or a shutdown of the government.

Committee Hearings – Week of 4-16-23

With both the House and Senate back in Washington from their Easter Recess, there is a relatively heavy schedule of hearings being held this week, mostly dealing with the budget. There is one cybersecurity hearing.

Budget Hearings

Budget Hearings	House	Senate
Coast Guard	Trans and Infra Subcommittee
FEMA	Approp Subscommittee
DHS	Homeland  Security	Homeland Security
Coast Guard	Approp Subscommittee
DOT	Approp Subscommittee
DOE		Energy & Nat Resources

Cybersecurity

On Wednesday, The Cybersecurity Subcommittee of the Senate Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing on “To Receive Testimony on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Applications to Enable Cybersecurity”. The witness list includes:

• Mark Ryland, Amazon Web Services,

• Josh Lospinoso, Shift 5, and

• Daniel J. Ragsdale, Two Six Technologies

This one could get geeky…

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.

Committee Hearings – Week of 2-26-23

This week, with the House and Senate back in Washington (House just for three days), we are starting to see a ‘normal’ committee schedule with fewer ‘organizational’ hearings. This includes a markup hearing and an oversight planning hearing in the House of potential interest here.

Energy Markup

On Tuesday, the Subcommittee on Energy, Climate, and Grid Security of the House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a markup hearing. There is one bill of potential interest here:

• HR 1160, Critical Electric Infrastructure Cybersecurity Incident Reporting Act

This bill was introduced last week and the GPO has not yet published an official copy of the bill’s language. The Committee does have a committee print available. The bill would make DOE the “designated agency within the Federal Government to receive notifications regarding cyber26 security incidents and potential cybersecurity incidents with respect to critical electric infrastructure from other Federal agencies and owners, operators, and users of critical electric infrastructure” {new 16 USC 824o–1(e)(1)}. It would also require DOE to “promulgate regulations to facilitate the submission of timely, secure, and confidential notifications regarding cybersecurity incidents and potential cybersecurity incidents” {new 16 USC 824o–1(e)(2)(A)} in support of that requirement.

I will try to have a more complete assessment of this bill completed before the hearing.

Homeland Security Oversight

On Tuesday, the House Homeland Security Committee will hold a business meeting to “Consider the Committee's Oversight Plan for the 118th Congress”. A draft of their oversight plan is available. It includes specific references to both cybersecurity and the CFATS program. The cybersecurity provisions are complex (as is to be expected), but the CFATS comments are contained in a single paragraph on page 9:

“During the 118th Congress the Committee will continue to oversee the Department’s implementation of the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standard (CFATS) program, which requires high risk chemical facility owners and operators to report chemical holdings, perform vulnerability assessments, and adopt risk-based security measures to protect against the threat of a terrorist attack. An act to extend the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards Program of the Department of Homeland Security, and for other purposes, (Pub. L. 116-150), conveys CFATS statutory authority until July 27, 2023, at which point the Committee will rely on these oversight activities and findings to consider improvements or modifications to the CFATS program which can be achieved through reauthorization.”

I’ll discuss both topics in more depth in a subsequent post.

Committee Hearings – Week of 12-4-22

This week with both the House and Senate in Washington trying to close out the lame duck session, there is a relatively limited committee hearing schedule. There is just one hearing of potential interest here, a House Rules Committee hearing on a new NDAA.

Today, the House Rules Committee will hold a hearing on four pieces of legislation that will include HR 7776 which will be used as the vehicle for the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act. No text is currently available.

Back in July, the House passed HR 7900, the FY 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, by a substantially bipartisan vote of 329 to 101. The Senate has attempted to take action on that bill, but has failed to come to an agreement that would be acceptable to 60 Senators to be able to move to an actual vote.

Commentary

With no language yet being offered for the substitute language that will be considered today, the Rules Committee will be relying on the backroom work being done by the bipartisan leadership of the two Armed Services Committees in developing that language. The rule that will probably be adopted today would be a closed rule with limited debate and no floor amendments. There is a distinct possibility that the HR 7776 portion of today’s hearing might be postponed until tomorrow while negotiators continue to work out the final details of the substitute language.

Committee Hearings – Week of 11-13-22

This week the 117^th Lame Duck session begins, with both the House and Senate meeting in Washington. We have two homeland security hearings to watch and confirmation hearings for the CSB.

Homeland Security

On Tuesday, the House Homeland Security Committee will hold a hearing on “Worldwide Threats to the Homeland”. The witness list includes:

• Alejandro Mayorkas, DHS,

• Christopher Wray, FBI

• Christine Abizaid, ODNI

Cybersecurity issues will definitely be discussed.

On Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on “Oversight of the Department of Homeland Security”. No witness list is currently available.

I expect that cybersecurity regulations at TSA and CISA may be briefly addressed.

CSB Nominations

On Thursday, the Senate the Environment and Public Works Committee will hold a nomination hearing for two CSB nominees: Stephen A. Owens to be Chairperson of the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigations Board and Catherine J.K Sandoval to be Member. Owens is currently a Member of the Board and acting as Chair. Sandoval was nominated by President Biden back in June. Sandoval is a law professor at Santa Clara University in California and has served on the California Public Utilities Commission. She has accident investigation experience from her time at CPUC.

There are currently three vacancies on the five-member Chemical Safety Board.

Committee Hearings Week of 9-25-22

This week with both the House and Senate in session (and the FY spending deadline approaching quickly), there is a relatively light hearing schedule, particularly on the House side of the Hill. We do have a markup hearing of interest, and a hearings on UAS integration.

Homeland Security Markup

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will be holding a business meeting today. It will include nine nomination votes, 22 pieces of legislation and four facility naming bills. Of particular interest here:

S ___, Strengthening Agency Management and Oversight of Software Assets Act of 2022,

S 4913, Securing Open Source Software Act of 2022,

S 4882, Fire Grants and Safety Act,

S ___, Protecting the Border from Unmanned Aircraft Systems Act,

HR 7777, Industrial Control Systems Cybersecurity Training Act,

HR 6824, President’s Cup Cybersecurity Competition Act, and

HR 6873, Bombing Prevention Act of 2022

UAS Integration

The Subcommittee on Aviation Safety, Operations and Innovation of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee will be holding a hearing on “FAA Reauthorization: Integrating New Entrants into the National Airspace System”. The witness list includes:

• Lisa Ellman, Commercial Drone Alliance,

• Gregory Davis, Eviation,

• Stephen P. “Lux” Luxion, FAA Center of Excellence for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ASSURE),

• Stéphane Fymat, Honeywell Aerospace, and

• Edward M. Bolen, National Business Aviation Association

Counter drone operations may come up in the discussion.

On the Floor

The 900-lb gorilla this week is the spending bill, or rather a continuing resolution that ‘must’ pass by midnight on Friday. A weekend final vote is not beyond possible.

The House is scheduled to take up 32 bills in this short week under the suspension of the rules process. With spending bill pending, we can expect Republican bomb throwers to demand votes on many if not most of these bills, just to gum up the process. Bills of potential interest here include:

• S 4900 – SBIR and STTR Extension Act of 2022,

• HR 8956 – FedRAMP,

Committee Hearings – Week of 9-11-22

This week, with both the House and Senate in Washington, we have a fairly full hearing schedule, including control system cybersecurity, right-to-repair, CG authorization markup, and social media impact hearings.

Cybersecurity

On September 15^th, 2022 the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Innovation of the House Homeland Security Committee will hold a hearing on “Building on our Baseline: Securing Industrial Control Systems Against Cyberattacks”. The witness list includes:

• Eric Goldstein, CISA,

• Vergle Gipson, Idaho National Laboratories

This could end up being a fairly technical hearing. It will be interesting to see how well the staff prepares their principals for asking questions.

Right-to-Repair

On September 14^th, 2022 the Subcommittee on Underserved, Agricultural, and Rural Business Development of the House Small Business Committee will hold a hearing on “Right to Repair and What it Means for Entrepreneurs”. The witness list includes:

• Gay Gordon-Byrne, Digital Right to Repair Coalition,

• Brian Clark, The iGuys’ Tech Shop, LLC,

• Jim Gerritsen, Wood Prairie Family Farm, and

• Ken Taylor, Ohio Machinery Co.

Any action for relief will have to include changes to the copywrite law and that will not happen in the Small Business Committee.

Coast Guard Authorization

On September 14^th, 2020 the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee will hold a markup hearing on “Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2022” (the Committee web site lists the bill as ‘S.XXXX’ but S 4802 was introduced last week by Sen Cantwell (D,WA) the Committee Chair).

The hearing site includes a link to a committee draft of the bill (GPO version of S 4802 is not yet available). I have not conducted an in-depth review of the provisions, but it does include the following sections that may be of interest:

§231. Enhancing maritime cybersecurity.

§232. Establishment of unmanned system program and autonomous control and computer vision technology project.

§233. Artificial intelligence strategy.

§234. Review of artificial intelligence applications and establishment of performance metrics.

§235. Cyber data management.

§236. Data management.

§237. Study on cyber threats to the United States marine transportation system.

§523. Study on multi-level supply chain security strategy of the department of homeland security.

Social Media Impact

Today the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on “Data Security at Risk: Testimony from a Twitter Whistleblower”. The sole witness scheduled is Peiter “Mudge” Zatko.

On September 14^th, 2022 the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will hold a hearing on “Social Media’s Impact on Homeland Security”. Two separate witness panels with industry representatives.

On the Floor

The House has a fairly busy schedule this week, but the leadership is hoping to be able to get to a continuing resolution to push a FY 2023 spending bill until sometime in December. See this article a GovExec.com for more information about the on-going negotiations on the CR. Action on a CR does not ‘have’ to be completed until close-of-business on September 30^th. Early action keeps down the press cries about a ‘potential government shutdown’ and would take the spending bill out of the mid-term political fight.

Committee Hearings – Week of 7-31-22

 With the House already on Summer Recess, just the Senate will be in Washington this week, eager to be gone. Light committee schedule with one markup hearing of note.

Markup Hearing

On Wednesday, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will hold a business meeting. They will take up 3 DC court nominations, 30 pieces of legislation, and 9 postal naming bills. Bills that I will be watching for include:

S ____, Safeguarding the Homeland from the Threats Posed by Unmanned Aircraft Systems Act of 2022,

HR 6825, Nonprofit Security Grant Program Improvement Act of 2022, and

HR 7077, Empowering the U.S. Fire Administration Act;

It will be interesting to see how far reaching the UAS bill is in allowing actual action against UAS at non-federal facilities. The bill may be introduced today, but I doubt the text will be available for review before Wednesday’s hearing.

Committee Hearings – Week of 7-24-22

With the House and Senate in session but preparing to leave on their Summer Recess at the end of the week, there is a relatively light hearing schedule. There is one cybersecurity hearing scheduled in the House.

Cybersecurity Hearing

On Thursday the Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics of House Space, Science, and Technology Committee will hold a meeting on “Exploring Cyber Space: Cybersecurity Issues for Civil and Commercial Space Systems”. The witness list includes:

• Theresa Suloway,The MITRE Corporation,

• Matthew Scholl, NIST, and

• Brandon Bailey, The Aerospace Corporation

This discussion could get technical, it will be interesting to see how well the Staff prepares technical questions, and how well the congresscritters understand the answers.

On the Floor in the House

The last week in July is always jam packed with stuff and this week will certainly be interesting. The House is planning on taking up 27 bills under the suspension of the rules process which will mean some late-night votes on Tuesday. Those bills include:

HR 7569 – Energy Cybersecurity University Leadership Act of 2022, and

HR 4551 – RANSOMWARE Act (not covered here)

There are five bills to be considered under rules, but nothing major. They will take up legislative time while the House waits on Senate actions (see below) on HR 4346, and possible  “Consideration of Legislation Related to Public Safety”.

On the Floor in the Senate

The Senate is scheduled to take the final cloture vote on HR 4346 this morning. This would set the bill up for a final vote tomorrow or Wednesday. There was some Republican support on the first cloture vote, but the final vote may be held ransom to some last-minute Republican amendment. We will just have to wait and see.

Committee Hearings – Week of 7-17-22

This week, with both the House and Senate in session and the summer recess approaching there is an interesting mix of congressional hearings. We have a spending bill rule hearing in the House. On the Senate side, we will see weapons of mass destruction, hydrogen pipelines, and a TSA confirmation hearing.

Spending Bill

On Tuesday, the House Rules Committee will consider a rule for a minibus spending bill. HR 8294 will be the vehicle for the six spending bills (HR 8294-THUD, HR 8239-ARD, HR 8255-EWR, HR 8254-FSGG, HR 8262-IER, and HR 8238-MC&VA). I will be looking at possible amendments in a separate post.

This bill is scheduled to come to the floor this week, probably on Wednesday.

Weapons of Mass Destruction

On Tuesday, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will hold a hearing on “Addressing Weapons of Mass Destruction and Health Security Threats to the Homeland”. The  witness list includes:

• Gary Rasicot, DHS,

• Pritesh Gandhi, DHS, and

• Tina Won Sherman, GAO

This looks like it might focus on the biological side of the CBRNE threat, but you never can tell where questions will lead.

Hydrogen Pipelines

On Tuesday, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will be holding a hearing on “Hearing On Federal Hydrogen Pipeline Regulatory Authorities”. The witness list includes: 

• Holly Krutka, University of Wyoming,

• Andy Marsh, Plug,

• Richard E. Powers, Jr., Venable LLP, and

• Chad Zamarin, Williams

TSA Confirmation Hearing

On Thursday, the Senate Homeland Security Committee will hold a confirmation hearing on “Nomination of the Honorable David P. Pekoske to be Administrator, Transportation Security Administration, U.S. Department of Homeland Security”. Pekoske will be the sole witness. There will probably be some (not many) questions on surface transportation security, including cybersecurity.

Committee Hearings – Week of 7-10-22

With both the House and Senate in session this week, and both trying to get a lot accomplished before the summer recess starts at the end of the month, there is a moderate load of hearings scheduled for this week. We have the NDAA Rules Committee hearing that I have been talking about in the House. There are two Senate hearings of interest: BIS oversight hearing and a counter UAS hearing. The House version of the NDAA will hit the floor this week and there might be along delayed vote on the cyber forensics bill from last month.

NDAA Hearing

Today, the House Rules Committee will take up HR 7900, the FY 2023 NDAA in a rule hearing. The rule will include two abortion bills and an active shooter bill, so there will be some contentious debates in the House this week. Depending on the order that the bills are taken up, we might not see a final vote on the NDAA this week.

The Rules Committee also announced an amendment deadline for a mini-bus spending bill. It looks like the plan is to combine six of the less controversial spending bills into a single bill to bring to the floor next week. This might allow the Senate to actually take up the bill before the end of the fiscal year, something they have not been able to do in a number of years. The deadline for amendments is Wednesday. The rule hearing will likely be next week.  More on this later.

BIS Oversight

On Thursday, the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee will hold an oversight hearing on “Advancing National Security and Foreign Policy Through Export Controls: Oversight of the Bureau of Industry and Security”. The sole witness will be Alan Estevez, DOC’s Under Secretary for Industry and Security. There is a possibility that questions will be asked about cybersecurity export controls, but I expect that the focus will be on sanctions on Russia, China, Iran and North Korea; BIS also manages the details of those programs.

Counter UAS Hearing

On Thursday, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will hold a hearing on “Protecting the Homeland from Unmanned Aircraft Systems”. The witness list includes: 

• Robert Silvers, DHS,

• Brad Wiegmann, DOJ,

• Tonya D. Coultas, FAA

This hearing may be a lead up to legislation reauthorizing the very limited authority that DHS and DOJ have for taking out UAS that endanger a limited number of federal activities. That authorization expires later this year. At the very least there should be an interesting discussion about what changes need to be made to the criminal code to allow wider spread counter UAS actions. 

I do expect that Coultas will be asked about the FAA’s continuing lack of action on the rulemaking on allowing critical infrastructure facilities to ask FAA to be declared ‘No Fly Zones’ for UAS. I expect that a reasonable answer might include the reality that a ‘no fly zone’ with no local enforcement capability is just a waste of time.

On the Floor

As noted above, HR 7900 is scheduled to come to the floor this week in the House, along with three other controversial bills. Fifteen new bills are on the schedule to be considered under the suspension of the rules process, including a cybersecurity bill (HR 7535, the Quantum Computing Cybersecurity Preparedness Act) that I have not covered. Additionally, there should be (well, ‘may be’ is probably a better term) votes on seven bills that were debated last month under the suspension of the rules process, including HR 7174, the National Computer Forensics Institute Reauthorization Act of 2022. There are going to be a lot of late nights in the House this week.