Energy & Commerce Committee Approves 3 Cybersecurity Bills

Today the House Energy and Commerce Committee held a markup hearing for six bills. Three of those bills were related to cybersecurity. All three cybersecurity bills were ordered reported favorably to the full House, each by voice votes. No amendments were offered on any these three amendments.

The three cybersecurity bills were:

• HR 3078, the Pipeline and LNG Facility Cybersecurity Preparedness Act,

• HR 2931, the Enhancing Grid Security through Public-Private Partnerships Act, and

• HR 2928, the Cyber Sense Act of 2021

NOTE: To date, I have only reviewed HR 3078. None of these bills have yet been published by the GPO.

Review - HR 3078 Introduced - Pipeline and LNG Facility Cybersecurity

Last month Rep Upton (R,MI) introduced HR 3078, the HR 3078 Introduced - Pipeline and LNG Facility Cybersecurity Preparedness Act. The bill would give the Department of Energy primary responsibility for physical and cybersecurity of pipelines and liquified natural gas facilities.

NOTE: This analysis of HR 3078 is based upon a Committee Print of the bill being used during today’s markup hearing by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The Government Printing Office has not yet published the official version of the bill.

Moving Forward

Upton is a senior member of the Energy and Commerce Committee and the bill is cosponsored by eighteen Republicans and Democrats, including the Chair {Rep Pallone (D,NJ)} and the Ranking Member {Rep McMorris (R,WA)}. This explains why the bill is moving forward with a markup hearing so quickly.

The bill has wide bipartisan support within the Committee and will have no problem passing in today’s hearing. The problem is going to be moving this bill forward to the floor of the House. Since this bill gives new authority to DOE over pipelines it also provides the Energy and Commerce Committee with new oversight responsibility as well. As I noted in my commentary on the introduction of HR 3243, this is going to put the Committee in direct conflict with the House Homeland Security Committee and the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee as who will be top dog in keeping pipeline security under control.

Until that conflict is resolved, neither of these bills will be able to move to the floor of the House for consideration.

For a more detailed analysis of the bill, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-3078-introduced Subscription Required.

House Energy and Commerce Cybersecurity Markup Hearing Scheduled

The House Energy and Commerce Committee will be holding a markup hearing tomorrow. The agenda includes three cybersecurity bills:

HR 3078, the Pipeline and LNG Facility Cybersecurity Preparedness Act,

HR 2931, the Enhancing Grid Security through Public-Private Partnerships Act, and

HR 2928, the Cyber Sense Act of 2021

NOTE: Each of the links above are to committee prints of the bills. GPO has not yet gotten to these bills. I have not yet reviewed them.

Bills Introduced – 5-11-21

Yesterday, with both the House and Senate in session, there were 92 bills introduced. One of those bills will receive additional coverage in this blog:

HR 3078 To require the Secretary of Energy to carry out a program relating to physical security and cybersecurity for pipelines and liquefied natural gas facilities. Rep. Upton, Fred [R-MI-6]

Looks like Upton has been thinking about this for a while, either that or his staff is really good at throwing legislation together quickly. One bad thing about relying on DOE for pipeline security oversight is that they would only have a mandate on crude and fuel pipelines, leaving the hazardous chemical pipelines in the same lax oversight (from a security perspective) regime that got Colonial Pipeline into trouble.

I would like to mention in passing a resolution that was also introduced yesterday. I know that there will be some interested readers, so I will probably mention process highlights for this legislation, but I will not be reviewing it in any depth.

H Res 383 Recognizing the 50th anniversary of the National Association of Chemical Distributors. Rep. Moolenaar, John R. [R-MI-4]