Bills Introduced – 6-14-22

Yesterday, with both the House and Senate in session, there were 44 bills introduced. Three of those bills may receive additional coverage in this blog:

HR 8053 To provide the Secretary of Energy with the authority to enter into contracts and cooperative agreements to improve the resilience of defense critical electric infrastructure and reduce the vulnerability of critical defense facilities to the disruption of the supply of electric energy to those facilities. Rep. Crow, Jason [D-CO-6]

HR 8064 To amend the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act to establish demonstration and pilot projects to facilitate education and training programs in the field of advanced manufacturing. Rep. Torres, Norma J. [D-CA-35] 

S 4397 A bill to authorize the Secretary of Defense to build capacity for counter-unmanned aircraft systems operations. Sen. Lankford, James [R-OK] 

I will be watching both HR 8053 and HR 8064 for language or definitions that specifically include cybersecurity of industrial control systems within the scope of the coverage of the bill.

I will be watching S 4397 for language in the bill that could allow for transfer of DOD counter-drone technology to private sector for critical infrastructure defense. I am not really expecting this because of the other legal obstacles to such transfer, but….

Review - HR 5412 Reported in House – FY 2022 Intel Authorization Act

Last month, the House Intelligence Committee published their report on HR 5412, the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022. On September 30^th the Committee adopted substitute language for the bill and ordered it reported favorably. The revised language is now available. None of the changes made in the language deal with cybersecurity issues (there is one minor anti-drone provision added) and the report provides no intelligence community taskings of significance to corporate cybersecurity interests.

This bill is now cleared for consideration by the full House. The Majority Leader’s web site mention that the bill may come to the floor this week, but that is looking increasingly unlikely. It is more likely to be considered when the House comes back from their Veterans week recess in the week before Thanksgiving. The House is very likely to pass this bill with at least some bipartisan support.

For more details on the changes to HR 5412 and the Committee Report taskings, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-5412-reported-in-house [link added 11-3-21, 22:39 EDT] - subscription required.

Review - HR 4350 Reported in House – FY 2022 NDAA

HR 4350, the FY 2022 National Defense Authorization Act, was introduced as a mere framework for the final bill. Over the summer recess the subcommittees and full House Armed Services Committee did the complicated (and often politically challenging) process of fleshing out the details of that bill. A reported version of the bill is now ready for consideration by the House as are two Committee reports (original report and supplemental). The bill contains a number of cyber operational provisions, but none of particular importance here. There are three relevant cybersecurity provisions and one interesting counter-drone provision that will be covered here.

As I said earlier this morning, the House Rules Committee is meeting today to construct the rule under which this bill will be considered in the House this week. There have been over 500 amendments submitted to the Committee, but only a limited number (not that limited, probably between 100 and 200) will be allowed to be offered on the floor of the House.

A quick search of the amendments for the term ‘cyber’ revealed that just five amendments contained that term, and two of those were identical copies of S 658, the National Cybersecurity Preparedness Consortium Act of 2021, as introduced in the Senate.

The bill will almost certainly pass in the House. It will be interesting to see how many Republicans vote for the bill. In any case, the Senate will probably not consider the language produced in the House this week. While the Senate Armed Services Committee has yet to introduce their own bill, that will (when it is introduced) probably be the language considered in the Senate. Then a Conference Committee will craft a mashup of the two versions that could pass in both the House and Senate. I do not expect a final vote on this bill until December.

I will look at the Committee Report and Supplemental Report in a separate article.

For more details about the cybersecurity and counter-drone provisions in this bill, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-4350-reported-in-house - subscription required.