Review - HR 3286 Reported in House – Open-Source Software

Last month, the House Homeland Security Committee published their Report on HR 3286 (removed from paywall). In May they held a business meeting and ordered the bill reported after adopting substitute language. The bill is now cleared for possible consideration by the full House after they return to Washington in September. The bill establishes several areas of responsibility for CISA regarding open-source software security. No funding is authorized in the bill.

Moving Forward

The bipartisan support for this bill was exemplified by both the voice vote for the adoption of the substitute language in the Homeland Security Committee, and the lack of an ‘alternate views’ section in the report. This means that if the House leadership (influenced by the more radical members of the conference) can be convinced to bring this bill to the floor, it would probably be considered under the suspension of the rules process which provide for limited debate, no floor amendments and a requirement for a supermajority to pass.

 

For more details about the Report and revised language, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-3286-reported-in-house - subscription required.

Review - HR 3286 Introduce – Open-Source Software Security

Last month, Rep Green (R,TN) introduced HR 3286, the Securing Open Source Software Act of 2023. The bill establishes several areas of responsibility for CISA regarding open-source software security. No funding is authorized in the bill. The bill is similar to S 917 that was introduced earlier this year.

The Senate bill has been favorably reported by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee with an amendment to the language of the bill. HR 3286 incorporates most of the changes adopted by the Committee in the Senate, but there are still differences between the two bills.

Moving Forward

Green and all three of his cosponsors are members of the House Homeland Security Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration. This means that there may be sufficient influence to see the bill considered in Committee. I see nothing in this bill that would engender any organized opposition to the proposed legislation. I suspect that it would see sufficient bipartisan support in Committee to allow it to be considered by the full House under the suspension of the rules process.

 

For a more detailed discussion about this bill, including difference from S 917 and a discussion on secondary committee considerations, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-3286-introduce - subscription required.

Bills Introduced – 5-15-23

Yesterday, with both the House and Senate in session, there were 101 bills introduced. One of those bills will receive additional coverage in this blog:

HR 3286 To amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to establish the duties of the Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency regarding open source software security, and for other purposes. reen, Mark E. [Rep.-R-TN-7]

Sharp eyed readers will have probably noted that this sounds suspiciously like the HR ____ that was discussed here yesterday in my post about markup hearings. It looks like this bill will be marked up in the House Homeland Security hearing on Wednesday.

Side Note: I counted 22 bills introduced in the House yesterday (out of 85 bills introduced in the chamber) dealing with various aspects of the permitting process for broadband and personal wireless communications facilities. It almost looks like a coordinated effort. Many of the bills would exempt a variety of such facilities from requirements for environmental or historical preservation reviews.

There is no way that any of the committees involved in these activities will be able to address each of these 22 bills. To be effective legislatively (move a bill to the President’s desk) these 22 bills would have been better served if they had been consolidated into one or two bills. But that would have required communications, coordination and horse trading, processes which are sadly lacking in the 118^th Congress.