Review - HR 2471, Division B, CJS Provisions – FY 2022 Spending

In this post, I am looking at Division B of HR 4241, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022. Division B is the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2022. This equates with HR 4505 that was introduced in July of last year, but was never considered in the House.

As with most spending bills, the details of interest about the spending levels and program instructions from the House and Senate Appropriations Committees are found in the Joint Explanatory Statement (JES) for the Division. The JES acknowledges the program requirements of the Committee Report on HR 4505, and continues most of those requirements while adding some new instructions.

Spending

The table below shows the spending for FY 2022 for four agencies covered by Division B that are frequently mentioned in this blog. Each agency received more funding than they did in FY 2021, but less than the House proposed in HR 4505. There was no Senate bill introduced for this fiscal year to compare against.

Spending in 1,000s	HR 2471	Δ from 2021	Δ from HR 4505
BIS	$141,000	+$8,000	-$2,410
NTIA	$50,000	+$4,500	-$29,000
NIST	$1,230,063	+$195,563	-$139,007
NSF	$8,838,000	+$351,241	-$796,036

For more details on Division B cybersecurity issues, including new program instructions from the House and Senate appropriators, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-2471-division-b-cjs-provisions - subscription required.

Review - HR 4505 Introduced – FY 2022 CJS Spending

Earlier this month, Rep Cartwright (D,PA) introduced the marked up version of HR 4505, the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill, 2022. The Appropriations Committee Report on the bill is also available. As is usual there are no cybersecurity provisions (beyond spending amounts for internal agency cybersecurity activities), but there are seven cybersecurity comments in the Report.

Moving Forward

As I noted earlier this morning, this bill is being rolled into the second spending minibus this year along with the Legislative and State spending bills (probably under HR 4336). The House Rules Committee will meet tomorrow to establish the rule for the floor debate on the 2^nd minibus. There have been 134 amendments submitted for this bill. Only one of those amendments is of concern here:

#4, Rep Langevin - Increases funding for NSF Education and Human Resources by $10,000,000. The money will be used for the CyberCorps: Scholarship for Service program in line with the funding recommendation from the Cyberspace Solarium Commission. Offset by an equal decrease to Federal Prison System – Salaries.

I suspect that the minibus will be passed along mainly party lines.

For more details about the cybersecurity comments, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-4505-introduced - subscription required.

Bills Introduced – 7-19-21

Yesterday, with both the House and Senate back in Washington, there were 56 bills introduced. Of those there were seven bills that may receive additional coverage in this blog:

HR 4502 Making appropriations for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2022, and for other purposes. Rep. DeLauro, Rosa L. [D-CT-3]

HR 4505 Making appropriations for the Departments of Commerce and Justice, Science, and Related Agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2022, and for other purposes. Rep. Cartwright, Matt [D-PA-8]

HR 4513 To amend the Small Business Act to provide for the establishment of an enhanced cybersecurity assistance and protections for small businesses, and for other purposes. Rep. Donalds, Byron [R-FL-19]

 

HR 4515 To amend the Small Business Act to require cyber certification for small business development center counselors, and for other purposes. Rep. Garbarino, Andrew R. [R-NY-2]

HR 4530 To establish the Office of Technologists within the Federal Trade Commission. Rep. McNerney, Jerry [D-CA-9]

S 2377 An original bill to invest in the energy and outdoor infrastructure of the United States to deploy new and innovative technologies, update existing infrastructure to be reliable and resilient, and secure energy infrastructure against physical and cyber threats, and for other purposes. Sen. Manchin, Joseph [D-WV]

S 2382 A bill to authorize the National Cyber Director to accept details from other elements of the Federal Government on nonreimbursable basis, and for other purposes. Sen. Portman, Rob [R-OH]

The two spending bills will be rolled into the first minibus that I discussed yesterday.

I will be watching HR 4513 and HR 4515 for language and definitions that would indicate that industrial control systems would be included in their coverage.

Okay, I probably will not be covering HR 4530, but I have to see what an “Office of Technologists” is.

S 2377 is Sen Manchin’s (D,WV) infrastructure bill (counter point to the similar but unrelated HR 3684) that was marked up in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee last week. The bill incorporates a number of cybersecurity bills. I am not sure that this will go anywhere, but it will be worth watching.

S 2382 is a housekeeping bill to allow the fleshing out of the Office of the National Cyber Director. I will probably be covering this even though it will almost certainly not have ICS specific language.