Committee Hearings – Week of 03-04-18

This week, with both the House and Senate in Washington for a congressional full-week, budget hearings will be the big news. There will be, however, some other hearings of interest; four of particular interest to readers of this blog; two markup hearings, a cybersecurity workforce hearing, and a Coast Guard programs hearing.

Markup Hearings

On Wednesday the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs will ‘continue’ their hearing of last week so that they can start the markup of HR 2825, a DHS authorization bill, that I mentioned last week. The bill was not considered last week because some new amendments were not ready for submission. There is also a possibility that a Senate version of the bill will be introduced this week and then that would be marked up instead of HR 2825.

The House Homeland Security Committee will meet on Wednesday to markup 11 bills. Bills of particular potential interest to readers of this blog include:

• HR 5094, the Enhancing Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative Act

• HR 5081, the Surface Transportation Security and Technology Accountability Act of 2018;

• HR 5099, the Enhancing DHS’ Fusion Center Technical Assistance Program;

• HR 5131, the Surface Transportation Security Improvement Act of 2018;

• HR 5089, the Strengthening Local Transportation Security Capabilities Act of 2018; and

• HR 5074, the DHS Cyber Incident Response Teams Act

I have not had a chance to review the first five on the list yet, but I will try to get that done before Wednesday.

Cybersecurity Workforce

On Wednesday two subcommittees of the House Homeland Security Committee will hold a joint hearing to look at “Examining DHS’ Efforts to Strengthen its Cybersecurity Workforce”. There is no witness list published yet, but I suspect that we will have either a GAO of DHS IG report presented at this hearing. In any case, the problems that DHS (and the rest of the government) is having identifying their cybersecurity needs and then finding the people to fill the requisite positions is just a reflection of the generally increasing need for cybersecurity specialists in the economy as a whole.

 Coast Guard Programs

On Wednesday the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will hold a hearing to look at “Implementation of Coast Guard Programs”. No witness list is currently available. There is a remote chance that the Maritime Transportation Security Act (MTSA) program implementation will be addressed. If it is it will almost certainly be touching on the TWIC Reader Rule; we are still waiting on the long overdue publication of a final rule.

Bills Introduced – 02-27-18

Yesterday with both the House and Senate in session, there were 63 bills introduced. Of those, two may be of specific interest to readers of this blog:

HR 5099 To amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to establish in the Department of Homeland Security a fusion center technical assistance program. Rep. Estes, Ron [R-KS-4]

HR 5131 To improve the effectiveness of Federal efforts to identify and address homeland security risks to surface transportation, secure against vehicle-based attacks, and conduct a feasibility assessment of introducing new security technologies and measures, and for other purposes. Rep. Watson Coleman, Bonnie [D-NJ-12] 

I will be watching HR 5099 to see if it includes specific cybersecurity requirements, particularly for industrial control system security issues.

I will be watching HR 5131 for chemical transportation security issues.

Bills Introduced – 04-29-16

With the Senate already on the road, the House finished up their business for the week so that they could also head back to their districts for a week of campaigning. Before they left they did submit 48 new bills. Two of those bills could be of particular interest to readers of this blog:

HR 5126 To enhance the early warning reporting requirements for motor vehicle manufacturers. Rep. Cartwright, Matt [D-PA-17]

HR 5131 To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to make improvements to voting system technology, election official training, and protecting voting system source code. Rep. Johnson, Henry C. "Hank," Jr. [D-GA-4]

Cartwright’s bill will receive future coverage if it applies to automotive control system vulnerability reporting.

I really doubt that there will be control system language in this bill, but I had to include it in today’s list because the title includes the words ‘source code’.