Senate Agrees to HR 1437 – 1 Week CR

Last night, the Senate agreed to the House amendment to HR 1437 in a bipartisan vote of 71 to 19, after rejecting two additional amendments, one of which would have extended the date of the continuing resolution until March 2023. That Republican backed amendment failed by a vote of 35-56. The House Amendment to HR 1437 turned that bill into a short-term continuing resolution continuing the existing funding of the federal government through December 23^rd, 2022. Which means that a spending bill is expected (hoped for) to be ready for a vote next week.

HR 1437 Passed in House – 1 Week CR

Yesterday the House took up the Senate Amendment to HR 1437 with a proposed amendment in the form of substitute language. That substitute language is a short-term continuing resolution that would continue the existing funding authority for the federal government through December 23^rd, 2022. The House adopted the revised language by a nearly party-line (9 Republicans voted Aye) vote of 224 to 201.

The Senate took up HR 1437 this evening with two proposed amendments. Details to follow tomorrow.

House to Take-up Amendment to HR 1437 – 1 Week CR

The House is scheduled today to take up the Senate Amendment to HR 1437, the Providing Research and Estimates of Changes In Precipitation (PRECIP) Act. This bill is being used as the vehicle for a short (1-week) continuing resolution. The substitute language being proposed in lieu of the Senate amendment is a relatively clean continuing resolution. There are a number of changes being made to various statutes that had an expiration date tied to the current CR (PL 117-180) for December 16^th. That CR would be extended to December 23^rd, 2022, next Friday.

There is one ‘odd’ provision in the new language. In Division A, §101(2), the bill would add a new §158 to the original CR:

‘‘SEC. 158. During the period covered by this Act, section 227(a) of the Federal Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2015 (6 U.S.C. 1525) shall not apply.’’.

Section 1525 provides a sunset for the reporting requirements  6 USC 1524(c) set for December 18^th, 2022. That subsection requires annual reports from DHS to Congress on “Intrusion detection and prevention capabilities” and similar OMB annual reports on “development and implementation of intrusion assessment plan, advanced internal defenses, and Federal cybersecurity requirements.”

It is odd that no one in the Homeland Security Committee had caught this sunset provision earlier and dealt with it in other legislation. I suspect that we will see an extension of the sunset date in the final spending bill.

BTW: The Senate amendment was included in Division D of the substitute, so the earlier work done on the bill in the House and Senate is not wasted.

Bills Introduced – 03-01-19

Yesterday with the House and Senate preparing to leave for the weekend there were 135 bills introduced. Four of these bills may be receiving future attention in this blog:

HR 1420 To amend the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 to promote energy efficiency via information and computing technologies, and for other purposes. Rep. Eshoo, Anna G. [D-CA-18]

HR 1437 To amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to require the Under Secretary for Management of the Department of Homeland Security to achieve security of sensitive assets among the components of the Department of Homeland Security, and for other purposes. Rep. Correa, J. Luis [D-CA-46]

S 592 A bill to amend the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 to promote transparency in the oversight of cybersecurity risks at publicly traded companies. Sen. Reed, Jack [D-RI]

S 602 A bill to address state-sponsored cyber activities against the United States, and for other purposes. Sen. Gardner, Cory [R-CO] 

All of these cybersecurity bills will be watched to see if they contain specific language addressing industrial control systems. Okay, two of these bills may not actually be cybersecurity related (HR 1420 and HR 1437), so I will be watching to see if they actually address cybersecurity issues.