Bills Introduced – 4-20-21

Yesterday, with both the House and Senate in session, there were 100 bills introduced. Two of those bills may receive additional coverage in this blog:

HR 2685 To direct the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information to submit to Congress a report examining the cybersecurity of mobile service networks, and for other purposes. Rep. Eshoo, Anna G. [D-CA-18] 

HR 2697 To establish a task force on developing a 21st century surface transportation workforce, and for other purposes. Rep. Langevin, James R. [D-RI-2]

I will be watching HR 2685 for language and definitions that would require the report to address 5G communications used to support IoT and IIoT devices.

I will be watching HR 2697 for language and definitions that would specifically address transportation security and/or cybersecurity training requirements.

HR 2685 Amended and Passed in House

This morning the House finished their consideration of the FY 2016 DOD spending bill, HR 2685. The original bill contained no specific mention of cybersecurity issues, but one amendment made proposed last night attempted to change that. The bill was adopted this morning on a partially bipartisan vote of 278 to 149. Five Republicans and 43 Democrats crossed party lines on the vote.

The cybersecurity amendment was offered by Rep. Grayson (D,FL) {CREC, 06-10-15, pg H4125}. It addressed the issue of collaboration between NSA and NIST and was intended to prevent a re-occurrence of the reported NIST compromise on security issues at the behest of NSA. As Grayson noted on the floor:

“The amendment seeks to prohibit the intelligence community from subverting or interfering with the integrity of any cryptographic standard that is proposed, developed, or adopted by NIST.”

The amendment was ultimately defeated in a voice vote.

Bills Introduced – 06-05-15

Neither the House nor Senate was is session on Friday, but there was one bill introduced in the House in any case:

HR 2685  Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2016. Rep. Frelinghuysen, Rodney P. [R-NJ-11]

I have had a chance to do a quick once-through on the bill and there are no specific mentions of cybersecurity. The bill will be considered during the coming week in the Full House; probably under an open amendment process. So, we may see cybersecurity issues added.