Intelligent Technologies Initiative Act of 2015

Last month Rep. Takano (D,CA) introduced HR 3852, the Intelligent Technologies Initiative Act of 2015. The bill would require the DOT to establish a grant program to fund a grant program for funding intelligent transportation system (ITS) projects.

Grant Program

Section 3 of the bill would require the Secretary to establish an Intelligent Technology Initiative to provide “grants to eligible entities to establish deployment sites for large scale installation and operation of ITS to improve safety, efficiency, system performance, and return on investment” {§3(a)}. The program would provide grants to 6 entities for projects for up to five years. The bill would authorize $200 million per year thru 2020.

Moving Forward

Takano is not a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, so it seem unlikely that he has the pull to move this bill through the Committee Process. While $200 million is a relatively small amount of money in surface transportation program, the money would still have to come out of some other program so it is likely that there would be some significant opposition to this bill when if it came to the House floor.

Commentary

There are a number of ITS projects that seem almost inevitable, if program bugs can be worked out. In my opinion one of the biggest obstacles to effective ITS deployment is that the various systems that are being talked about have some serious potential cybersecurity problems that must be solved before the systems can be safely deployed.

Unfortunately, this bill is completely devoid of any mention of cybersecurity issues. There is no requirement for a cybersecurity component in any of the systems to be considered for the grant program. Nor is there any requirement in any of the required reports to Congress to include any information about cybersecurity issues.

I would like to see in any grant program for ITS deployment a clear requirement to address cybersecurity issues in any deployment scheme. Further, it would seem to me that a portion of the grant program should be set aside for specific studies on ITS cybersecurity issues. Failure to take these two requirements in an ITS implementation grant program clearly mark the program as being short sighted and not worthy of the limited transportation funding system.

Bills Introduced – 10-23-15

With just the House in session on Friday there were 15 bills introduced. Of those four may be of specific interest to readers of this blog:

HR 3815 To deter terrorism, provide justice for victims, and for other purposes. Rep. King, Peter T. [R-NY-2]

HR 3819 To provide an extension of Federal-aid highway, highway safety, motor carrier safety, transit, and other programs funded out of the Highway Trust Fund, and for other purposes. Rep. Shuster, Bill [R-PA-9]

HR 3823 To provide for direct hire authority for positions in the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, and for other purposes. Rep. Green, Gene [D-TX-29]

HR 3825 To improve transportation safety, efficiency, and system performance through innovative technology deployment and operations. Rep. Takano, Mark [D-CA-41]

HR 3815 was added to the list just because I wanted to see what new and innovative counter-terrorism ideas that Rep. King (R,NY) has come up with since he left chairmanship of the Homeland Security Committee.

HR 3819 is a bill to extend the current surface transportation authorization until November 15^th. It is being introduced as a budget reconciliation bill so that it cannot held up in the Senate by cloture. It is currently scheduled to be considered in the House under suspension of the rules onTuesday. This is being done to give Congress a chance to act on HR 3673 which indicates that action on that bill will not be as clean as I originally predicted.

HR 3823 may be of interest depending on what employee slots this will effect and the reason given. The federal hiring process is a mess and we will be seeing more of these types of bills as the Feds try to fill existing critical slots in their agencies.

HR 3825 will only be of interest here if it addresses cybersecurity issues related to intelligent transportation systems.

Bills Introduced – 01-09-14

Of the 33 bills introduced yesterday in the House and Senate only one may be of specific potential interest to readers of this blog.

HR 3825 Latest Title: To establish the National Freight Mobility Infrastructure Improvement Program to improve freight mobility in the United States, to establish the National Freight Mobility Infrastructure Fund, and for other purposes. Sponsor: Rep Smith, Adam (D,WA)

This bill may, or may not, contain specific provisions concerning the shipment of chemicals.