Review – HR 4046 Introduced – Ag Cybersecurity Centers

In June Rep Nunn (R,IA) introduced HR 4046, the Cybersecurity in Agriculture Act of 2025. The bill would require the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) to establish five Regional Agriculture Cybersecurity Centers (RACC) to carry out research, development, and education on agriculture cybersecurity. The bill would authorize $25 million in annual spending to support the Centers through 2028.

Moving Forward

Both Dunn and his sole cosponsor {Rep Davis (D,NC)} are members of the House Agriculture Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration. This means that their may be sufficient influence to see the bill considered in Committee. I suspect that there would be some level of bipartisan support for the bill in Committee, but the new spending will run afoul of efforts of the many Republicans to radically reduce spending. The bill might be able to clear the Committee, but I doubt that there would be enough influence to see the bill overcome that objection and move to the floor of the House. I suspect that the bill could pass with bipartisan support if it were considered by the full House, but not under the suspension of the rules process; a super majority vote would be difficult to achieve.

Commentary

There is one major deficiency in this bill, it lacks any mention of cybersecurity vulnerabilities in agricultural systems. The RACCs should be conducting vulnerability research, act as vulnerability disclosure coordinators for agricultural systems, and coordinate with CISA’s NCCIC in publishing advisories about reported vulnerabilities.

To support those vulnerability related efforts, I would add a new §2(b)(9):

“(9) conduct vulnerability research on agricultural control system, act as a coordinator between researchers and vendors, and, in coordination with CISA’s National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center, publish advisories describing discovered cybersecurity vulnerabilities in agricultural control systems.

 

For more details about the provisions of this bill, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-4046-introduced-ag-cybersecurity - Subscription required.

Review - HR 4046 Introduced - NTIA Policy and Cybersecurity Coordination

Last month, Rep Duncan (R,SC) introduced HR 4046, the NTIA Policy and Cybersecurity Coordination Act. The bill would establish within the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) the Office of Policy Development and Cybersecurity. The current Associate Administrator for Policy Analysis and Development would become the first Associate Administrator for Policy Development and Cybersecurity, heading the new Office.

Duncan and one of his two cosponsor {Rep Curtis (R,UT)} are members of the House Energy and Commerce 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 do not see anything here that would engender any specific opposition, since this would essentially acknowledge and codify actions that are being undertaken at NTIA in any case. I suspect that the bill would receive significant bipartisan support and could be moved to the floor of the House using the suspension of the rules process; limited debate, no floor amendments and a super majority to pass.

I was surprised not to see the language in this bill as a proposed amendment to HR 4046, the FY 2022 CJS spending bill, on the House Rules Committee site. That Committee will be formulating the rule for the consideration of the spending bill on Tuesday. Since NTIA is a component of the Commerce Department, this would have been an ideal place to move this bill forward. This may mean that Duncan has not place a high priority on this bill.

For more details about the duties of this new Office, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-4046-introduced - subscription required.

Bills Introduced – 6-22-21

Yesterday, with both the House and Senate in session, there were 85 bills introduced. Two of those bills may receive additional coverage in this blog:

HR 4046 To amend the National Telecommunications and Information Administration Organization Act to establish the Office of Policy Development and Cybersecurity, and for other purposes. Rep. Duncan, Jeff [R-SC-3]

HR 4055 To establish a cybersecurity literacy campaign, and for other purposes. Rep. Kinzinger, Adam [R-IL-16]

I will be watching both of these bills for language or definitions that would indicate that they could include industrial control systems in their coverage.