Committee Hearings – Week of 7-16-17

With both the House and Senate in session there is a wide slate of congressional hearings this week. Spending bills are finishing up in the House and the Senate continues to plug away on nomination hearings. There are two cybersecurity hearings of potential interest, one a markup and one addressing energy security.

Spending Bills

The House Appropriations Committee is still working on ginning out their spending bills with two more hearings being conducted during the remainder of the week:

• 7-18-17 (full committee) FY2018 Homeland Security Appropriations Bill and FY2018 Interior Appropriations Bill;

• 7-19-17 (full committee) FY 2018 State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill, and FY2018 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Bill;

Cybersecurity Mark-up

On Wednesday the Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee will mark-up a staff draft of a bill on highly automated vehicle testing and deployment. The Committee Draft of the bill contains a section on “Cybersecurity of automated driving systems” which I will try review later today.

Energy Security

Later this morning the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will hold a hearing to examine the status and outlook for U.S. and North American energy and resource security. Cybersecurity is certainly going to be part of this discussion. The witness list includes:

• Fatih Birol, International Energy Agency;

• Stephen Cheney, American Security Project;

• Robert Coward, American Nuclear Society;

• Dan McGroarty, Carmot Strategic Group;

• Mark Mills, Manhattan Institute; and

• Jamie Webster, Center for Energy Impact

On the Floor of the House

Today the House will consider HR 3050, Enhancing State Energy Security Planning and Emergency Preparedness Act of 2017, under their suspension of the rules procedure. This means that there will be limited debate and no amendments will be considered. This usually means that the House leadership considers this to be a non-controversial bill with a high-probability of passage (which requires a super-majority). NOTE: The committee report on the bill has not yet been published, it will probably be submitted today, but will not actually be available on the Congress.gov site until later this week.

NOTE: The House Rules Committee called for amendments to HR 2997, 21st Century Aviation Innovation, Reform, and Reauthorization Act. This is the House version of the FY 2018 FAA reauthorization. I have not published a review of this bill yet because there is currently nothing of real interest included in the introduced version. It looks like that will be changing. No hearing is scheduled yet, but it may happen later this week.

Bills Introduced – 07-17-17

With both the House and Senate in session there were 20 bills introduced yesterday. Of those, three may be of specific interest to readers of this blog:

HR 3266 Making appropriations for energy and water development and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2018, and for other purposes. Rep. Simpson, Michael K. [R-ID-2]

HR 3267 Making appropriations for the Departments of Commerce and Justice, Science, and Related Agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2018, and for other purposes. Rep. Culberson, John Abney [R-TX-7]

HR 3268 Making appropriations for Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies programs for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2018, and for other purposes. Rep. Aderholt, Robert B. [R-AL-4]

As with all spending bills, I will be watching these for potential cybersecurity provisions.

Committee Hearings – Week of 07-09-17

The House and Senate are back in Washington after their extended 4^th of July weekend. Spending bills are the big item in the House this week; that and HR 2810, the FY2018 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)

Spending Bills

The House Appropriations Committee and its various subcommittees will be holding a number of hearings this week on the individual spending bills.

• 7-11-17, Subcommittee, FY 2018 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Bill;

7-12-17, Subcommittee, FY2018 Homeland Security Appropriations Bill;

• 7-12-17, Full Committee, FY2018 Agriculture Appropriations Bill, and FY2018 Energy and Water Development Appropriations Bill;

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• 7-13-17, Full Committee, FY2018 Commerce, Justice and Science Appropriations Bill & FY 2018 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Bill;

• 7-13-17, Full Committee, FY2018 Commerce, Justice and Science Appropriations Bill & FY 2018 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Bill;

• 7-13-17, Subcommittee, FY2018 State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill;

• 7-13-17, Subcommittee, FY2018 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Bill;

HR 2810

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the House Rules Committee is holding two meetings (Tuesday and Wednesday) on HR 2810, the FY 2018 NDAA. Generally, we can expect the first meeting to establish the general ground rules for debate on the floor of the House. The second will establish which amendments may be offered on the floor. The number will be large and will include the major Democrat wish-list amendments.

The House will begin consideration of HR 2810 on Wednesday and should finish with a final vote Thursday night.