Committee Hearings – Week of 5-22-16

This week both the House and Senate are in Washington, but are preparing to take their Memorial Day recess. Lots of stuff on the agenda for this week both in hearings and on the floor. Spending bills are going to be an important item this week. We will also see a couple of cybersecurity hearings and two House Rules Committee Hearings of specific interest to readers of this blog.

Spending Bills

The following spending bill hearings will take place this week

• Commerce, Justice and Science – House Appropriations Committee – Monday;

• Transportation, Housing and Urban Development – House Appropriations Committee – Monday;

• Defense – Senate Defense Sub-Committee – Tuesday;

• Homeland Security – Senate Homeland Security Subcommittee – Tuesday;

• Defense and Homeland Security – Senate Appropriations Committee – Thursday.

Cybersecurity

There are three cybersecurity related hearings scheduled for this week; a bill markup, a preparedness and response hearing and a hearing on international cybersecurity. None of these hearings will specifically address industrial control system matters.

On Tuesday the House Science, Space and Technology Committee will mark up an as of yet unintroduced bill, the “Networking and Information Technology Research and Development Modernization Act of 2016”. No language is yet available on the Committee web site.

Two subcommittees of the House Homeland Security Committee will be holding a joint hearing on Tuesday on “Enhancing Preparedness and Response Capabilities to Address Cyber Threats”. The witness list has been announced and includes:

• Mark Ghilarducci, Office of the Governor of California

• Daniel J. Cooney, New York State Police

• Steven Spano, Center for Internet Security

• Mark Raymond, National Association of State Chief Information Officers

• Robert Galvin, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey

The Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific, and International Cyber Security will be holding a hearing on Wednesday on “International Cybersecurity Strategy: Deterring Foreign Threats and Building Global Cyber Norms”. The only witness currently scheduled is Christopher Painter,

Coordinator for Cyber Issues, State Department.

Rules Committee Hearing

In addition to this evenings TSCA hearing that I mentioned Saturday, the House Rules Committee will meet Tuesday to consider an amendment to S 2012, Energy Policy Modernization Act of 2015, that passed last month in the Senate. According to the Committee website the amendment will be substitute language that includes substantial provisions from the following (38) bills already passed in the House:

HR 8, HR 4583, HR 2080, HR 2081, HR 4416, HR 4434, HR 4411, HR 4412, HR 2898, HR 2406, HR 1937, HR 538, HR 404, HR 482, HR 959, HR 979, HR 984, HR 1289, HR 1324, HR 1541, HR 1554, HR 1949, HR 2223, HR 2288, HR 2857, HR 2880, HR 3004, HR 3036, HR 3371, HR 3620, HR 4119, HR 1475, HR 1214, HR 2791, HR 2647, HR 1806, and Title XXXIII of HR 4909. 

The only bill in the list that I have covered is HR 8, so I expect that the only cybersecurity provisions will be those from that bill. I should have a chance to take a closer look at the substitute language before the Rules Committee Hearing.

On The Floor

The House will be considering HR 5077, the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017 later today (or possibly tomorrow, it is a long suspension list) under suspension of the rules. As always this requires a supermajority to pass and there will be little debate and no amendments to the bill on the floor.

The House will also consider the TSCA revision (HR 2576) and the Energy bill under a more complete debate process, possibly with amendments from the floor, later in the week.

As I mentioned earlier today the Senate is probably going to take up the FY 2017 NDAA this week, though I will be surprised if it is completed this week (though stranger things have happened in Washington).

Senate Resumes Considering S 2012

Yesterday the Senate resumed consideration of S 2012, the Energy Policy Modernization Act of 2015. There were 27 amendments considered en bloc and passed by unanimous consent. Four additional amendments (including the substitute language) were approved and four were rejected; all by voice votes. A unanimous consent agreement was reached to schedule a final vote on the bill for today.

Provisions of Interest

The language in the substitute amendment included two specific provisions that could be of specific interest to readers of this bill (described previously here):

• Critical Electric Infrastructure Information; and

• Enhanced Grid Security

Only six of the large number of amendments offered to this bill could have been of interest to readers of this blog. None of those were considered in yesterday’s actions. Those amendments were:

SA 2997 – Sen. WYDEN (D,OR) – Internet of Things;

SA 3163 – Sen. FISCHER (R,NE) – Pipes Act;

SA 3186 – Sen. FISCHER – OSHA Retail Facility Exemption;

SA 3196 – Sen. Mr. KIRK (R,IL) – Large Scale Cyber Incidents;

SA 3197 – Sen. COLLINS (R,ME) – Critical Electric Infrastructure at Greatest Risk;

SA 3236 – Sen. WYDEN – Energy Train Data Collection;

Moving Forward

It is being reported on Twitter that the bill passed this morning by a vote of 85 – 12; as expected a significant bipartisan majority. The question now is whether the House will take up this bill or whether the House will insist on the language in HR 8 that passed along a party-line vote and that the President has threatened to veto. The later choice would lead to a conference committee to work out the differences between the two bills.

NOTE: HR 636 passed yesterday, as expected, by a vote of 95 – 3.