House Passes HR 1960 with 5 of 6 Cyber Amendments

This afternoon the House passed HR 1960, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2014 with a bipartisan vote (315 – 108). The fifth cyber-amendment was adopted earlier in the day on a voice vote with a number of other amendments in en bloc amendments #8. The one remaining cyber-amendment {102 #267 Version 1 DeSantis (R,FL)} approved by the House Rules Committee earlier this week was not considered by the House.

House Adopts Some Cybersecurity Amendments to HR 1960

Today the House began consideration of the amendments to HR 1960, the DOD FY 2014 Authorization bill. As expected this will be a multi-day consideration process.  The Committee of the Whole House (the procedure under which legislation is debated) considered and adopted four of the six amendments that I described in an earlier blog post. Those bills were adopted en bloc by a voice vote. They included:

• 98 #220 Version 2 Cárdenas (D,CA) Revised Ensures that an assessment of the retention, recruitment, and management of the cyber operation forces is included in a comprehensive mission analysis of cyber operations by the Department of Defense.

• 99 #218 Version 2 Cárdenas (D,CA) Revised Ensures that the investigations launched by the Department of Defense related to the compromise of critical program information include an estimate of economic losses resulting from the intrusion and any actions needed to protect intellectual property.

• 100 #126 Version 1 Ruiz, Raul (D,CA) Requires the Secretary of Defense to submit a report to the Congress on the feasibility of establishing a small business cyber technology office to assist small business concerns in providing cybersecurity solutions to the Federal Government.

• 101 #219 Version 1 Cárdenas (D,CA) Authorizes the Department of Defense to create a education program to assist small business understand cyber security threats.

The remaining two cybersecurity amendments will probably be considered tomorrow.

House Rules Committee Adopts Initial Rule for HR 1960

Last night the House Rules Committee adopted the rule for the consideration of HR 1960, the FY 2014 DOD authorization bill. This rule (H. Res. 256) only covers the initial debate; a separate Rules Committee hearing this afternoon will consider what amendments will be debated and voted upon before the bill is brought to an actual vote.

Adoption of this Resolution, probably today, will clear the House for a 1 hour debate on the general merits of the bill. No amendments will be offered and no votes will take place.

As I noted in an earlier blog there are several cybersecurity related provisions included in the latest version of this bill. None of them deal specifically with control systems or non-defense related computer systems, but they may have an impact on future proposed cybersecurity legislation. Due to the size of the defense related (government, contract and vendor) computer system foot print these provisions could also influence how vendors handle cybersecurity issues in general.