Database Expansion
The bill would amend §1406
of the ‘John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007 {
PL
109-364 §1406 (120 STAT. 2436)} which required DOD to establish a database
that recorded the “emergency response capabilities that each State’s National
Guard, as reported by the States, may be able to provide in response to a
domestic natural or manmade disaster, both to their home States and under
State-to-State mutual assistance agreements” {§1406(1)}.
The bill would add two specific cybersecurity related
requirements to that database {§2(b)(2)}:
• Cyber capabilities of the
National Guard that are identified by the Department as important to national
security and for response to domestic natural or manmade disasters.
• Cyber capabilities of the other reserve components
of the Armed Forces that are identified by the Department as important to
national security.
Moving Forward
Ernst is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee
(the committee to which the bill was assigned for consideration) and two of her
co-sponsors {Sen. Gillibrand (D,NY) and Sen. Fischer (R,NE)} are members of the
Cybersecurity Subcommittee of that Committee. This means that there is a good
chance that there will be sufficient political influence to have that Committee
take up this bill.
There is nothing in this bill that would cause any
substantial opposition to its consideration. If this bill were taken up on its
own, it would likely be considered under the Senate’s unanimous consent
procedure. This bill is also a good candidate for inclusion in the 2018 DOD
authorization bill, either in the initial draft or as a floor amendment.
Commentary
There is nothing in the bill that would specifically require
the inclusion of industrial control system security experience/expertise in the
database listing. It is likely that DOD would take that step on their own
initiative.
What is not clear with respect to either the original
database requirement, or this modification, is to what use DOD is expected to
put this database; whether it is only for internal DOD use or whether other
government organizations (FEMA for example) would have access to the database.
This bill would be a good place to clarify which agencies are expected to have
access to the database.
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