HR 1073 Introduced – EMP

As I mentioned earlier Rep. Franks (R,AZ) introduced HR 1073, the Critical Infrastructure Protection Act. This bill would require DHS to consider electromagnetic pulse events (natural and man-made) in federal planning scenarios.

As I mentioned in my earlier post this bill is closely patterned after HR 3410 which was introduced and passed in the House last session. Now that I have had a chance to actually read HR 1073 it is clear that it is the same bill with two inconsequential additions;

Section 3 was added to specifically state that this bill cannot be “be construed to grant any regulatory authority”;

Section 4 was added to specifically state that this bill provides no authorization for new spending and that it may only “be carried out only by using funds appropriated under the authority of other laws”.

The added wording was superfluous as there is no mention of regulations or spending authority in the bill. As with the previous bill this will require DHS to undertake new work without providing any new money or manpower. That being said I don’t see any significant opposition to this bill in either house.

If it is brought up it will be considered under suspension of the rules in the House and under unanimous consent procedures in the Senate, so there will be not real debate and no amendments offered. If it gets to the floor in either case it will be passed with a substantially bipartisan vote.

Bills Introduced – 02-25-15

There were 66 bills introduced yesterday in the House and Senate. Only one of those bills might be of specific interest to readers of this blog:

HR 1073 To amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to secure critical infrastructure against electromagnetic threats, and for other purposes. Rep. Franks, Trent [R-AZ-8]

I suspect that this will be very similar to HR 3410 introduced last session by Rep. Franks. That bill passed in the House on a voice vote, but was never acted upon in the Senate.

HR 3410 Passes in House on Voice Vote

After just 17 minutes of debate, the House today passed HR 3410 on a voice vote. As I noted earlier today, the bill would require to consider electromagnetic pulse (EMP) events, both natural and man-made, in its emergency planning processes. No new money was allocated to DHS to implement these new planning requirements.

If this bill makes it to the floor of the Senate (always an iffy proposition in the 113^th Congress) I would expect that it would be adopted in that body under their unanimous consent process.

Congressional Hearings – Week of 12-01-14

There are a number of hearings scheduled this week as the House and Senate come back to Washington for week 3 of the lame-duck session, but none of specific interest to readers of this blog. The House Majority Leader does expect to bring some bills of interest to the floor for votes this week. The currently listed bills will all be considered ‘under suspension of the rules’ which call for a super-majority vote, limited debate and no amendments. Typically these bills are expected to pass with at least some bipartisan support.

Monday

The House is expected to take up 10 bills today; three of them are of potential specific interest to my readers:

• H.R. 3410 – Critical Infrastructure Protection Act, as amended (Sponsored by Rep. Trent Franks / Homeland Security Committee)

• H.R. 5629 – Strengthening Domestic Nuclear Security Act of 2014, as amended (Sponsored by Rep. Patrick Meehan / Homeland Security Committee)

• H.R. 3438 – National Laboratories Mean National Security Act (Sponsored by Rep. Eric Swalwell / Homeland Security Committee)

I’ve only addressed one of these bills; HR 3410. This bill would require DHS to undertake emergency response planning for EMP events. No funding is provided in this bill, so any DHS efforts will be minimal at best. The bill will probably pass Monday, but it is an open question if it will ever see action in the Senate. If it does it will almost certainly be one of those bills that pass at the end of the day under unanimous consent.

Later in the Week

None of the eleven bills currently listed for Tuesday consideration are of specific interest here. The only other bill potentially of interest that might come to the floor this week is the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act, this is one of those ‘must pass’ bills that will almost certainly be considered before the 113^th Congress ends deliberations for the last time. Interestingly, the Majority Leader’s web site lists this bill by name rather than bill number (HR 4435) [NOTE: Because HR 4435 was passed in House earlier this year but not considered in the Senate; 12-02-14, 7:00 CST].

There was no mention of cybersecurity issues in the original bill or committee markup, but the House Armed Services Committee Report does add some reporting requirements on cyber range operations, Air Force cyber-operations compatibility with the Cyber Command, and the required information sharing program with the defense industrial base.

[Ignore discussion below, See Note above]

A rule for the consideration of HR 4435 had been adopted by the House Rules Committee back in May and the Whole House adopted that rule on May 21^st. That provided a structured rule with a large number of specific amendments that could be brought to the floor. Amendments of specific interest to readers of this blog included:

• Amdt #39 – Adding authorization for National Guard Cyber Protection Teams similar in concept to the WMD response units currently deployed;

• Amdt #78 – Small business cyber education program to aid small DOD contractors to understand, prepare for and respond to cyber attacks;

• Amdt#142 – DNI certification of mission analysis of DOD cyber operations; and

• Amdt#146 – Sense of Congress statement about the use of National Guard in defending against cyber-attacks on the United States.

At this point it is not clear if the currently approved rule will be used for the floor consideration of HR 4435, or even if HR 4435 will be the actual bill used to pass the NDA this year. As more information becomes available I will share it.

HR 3410 Introduced – EMP Planning

As I noted in an earlier blog post Rep. Franks (R,AZ) introduced HR 3410, the Critical Infrastructure Protection Act (CIPA), which would require DHS to consider electromagnetic pulse (EMP) incidents in its critical infrastructure emergency planning process.

Section 2(a) of the bill would amend the Homeland Security Act by adding a definition of EMP to 6 USC §101, adding a new section to Title V requiring the Secretary to include EMP incidents in national planning scenarios, and adding a new section to Title III that would require DHS S&T to conduct research on mitigating the effects of EMP events.

The definition would specifically include natural and manmade EMP events. Given the fact that a large scale EMP event (natural or a deliberate attack) would be as devastating to a modern technological society as a full scale nuclear attack (I know, no direct physical destruction, but the simultaneous termination of EVERY ELECTRONIC DEVICE within range of the event would have immediate and long term catastrophic consequences) I suppose that DHS ought to be looking at this. It should rank right up there with planning for a post-nuclear holocaust or the explosion of the Yellowstone super-volcano dome.

Responding to the use of a smaller scale EMP device directed at critical infrastructure, is of course a slightly different situation. Still the technical sophistication required to make an effective weapon based upon this technology probably makes the use of such a weapon by terrorists slightly less likely than their employment of a nuclear weapon.

I suppose that a rational consideration of the extent of the threat explains the lack of authorization of new spending to support the research requirements of this bill.

Since this bill does not actually require anyone to do anything other than come up with yet another bureaucratic plan, this plan would not face significant opposition if it made it to the floor of the House. I would be surprised, however, if this bill made it out of committee due to lack of consideration rather than any actual opposition.

Bills Introduced – 10-31-13

With the House preparing to head home for another long district week (to be back in Washington on 11-12-13) a large number of bills were introduced, many just for the purpose of campaigning while back home. Of the 95 bills and resolutions introduced yesterday, three might be of interest to readers of this blog:

HR 3381 Latest Title: To authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2014 for intelligence and intelligence-related activities of the United States Government, the Community Management Account, and the Central Intelligence Agency Retirement and Disability System, and for other purposes. Sponsor: Rep Rogers, Mike J. (R,MI)

HR 3410 Latest Title: To amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to secure critical infrastructure against electromagnetic pulses, and for other purposes. Sponsor: Rep Franks, Trent (R,AZ)

HJ RES 100 Latest Title: Making further continuing appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2014, and for other purposes. Sponsor: Rep Miller, George (D,CA)

While most commentators will be looking at the Intel Authorization bill for restrictions on the use of electronic surveillance in the US, I will be watching for various cybersecurity provisions.

While an EMP attack could be devastating, the cost of defending against this type of low probability attack would be quite high. It will be interesting to see how this bill addresses the situation.

It seems a bit early to see the next round of Continuing Resolutions being introduced. Since Rep. Miller is a Democrat and is neither a member of the Appropriations nor Budget Committees, this bill has zero chance of being considered. So, this bill was introduced solely for home district consumption. Still it might be interesting to see what it includes.

HR 3410 Introduced

Last week on July 30th Representative Melissa Bean (D,IL) introduced HR 3410, The Taking Responsible Action for Community Safety (TRACS) Act. According to a press release from Congresswoman Bean’s office the act would require the “Surface Transportation Board to consider the effects of rail expansion on local communities and taxpayers as part of its core mission”. The bill would expand the requirements of 49 USC 11324 to include STB hearings on ‘consolidation, merger and acquisition of control’ issues that involved at least one Class I railroad instead of the current 2 Class I railroads. It would also expand the items that would have to be taken into account when approving such actions to a variety of issues affecting local communities. One of those issues would be of particular interest to the chemical security community; the issue of “hazardous materials transportation safety” {§11324(b)(6)}. This same bill was introduced last year by Chairman (House Transportation Committee) Oberstar (coincidentally on July 31st) as HR 6707. It looks like Congresswoman Bean (who was a co-sponsor last year) copied and pasted the entire contents of HR 6707 into the submission for this bill. You can tell by the final section of the bill which would make the bill, if passed, retroactive to any action not completed by the STB on August 1, 2008. One would assume that should read 08-01-09 or later. The bill was reported favorably by committee last year, but was not agreed to by the House when it was brought up under suspension of the rules on September 27th. The recorded vote (243-175) would have been sufficient to pass the bill if it had been brought up in regular order, but that did not happen because of the election shortened session. If the bill makes it to the floor this year it would seem likely to pass if not considered under suspension of the rules; which requires 2/3rd vote to pass.