With both the House and Senate in session there were 27
bills introduced yesterday. Of those five may be of specific interest to
readers of this blog:
HR
5390 To amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to authorize the
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection Agency of the Department of
Homeland Security, and for other purposes.
Rep.
McCaul, Michael T. [R-TX-10]
HR
5393 Making appropriations for the Departments of Commerce and Justice,
Science, and Related Agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2017,
and for other purposes.
Rep.
Culberson, John Abney [R-TX-7]
HR
5394 Making appropriations for the Departments of Transportation, and
Housing and Urban Development, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending
September 30, 2017, and for other purposes.
Rep.
Diaz-Balart, Mario [R-FL-25]
The first three bills are those that I
mentioned
yesterday in my post about congressional hearings. The House Homeland
Security Committee will be marking up these bills today. The text for the first
two of these bills is currently available from the GPO. This means that I’ll be
able to give a little more detail in this post on those bills.
HR 5388 would add a new section to the Homeland Security Act
of 2002 authorizing the DHS S&T Directorate to support cybersecurity
research and development. Unfortunately, the bill uses the limited definition
of information system that does not include control systems so no control system
specific security research would be supported. And, as is usual, there are no
additional funds authorized for this new program so it effectively dilutes
S&T research monies.
HR 5389 would authorize DHS to establish local coordination
offices in areas of the country where there were concentrations of “innovative
and emerging technology developers and firms” {§2(a)(1)} for the purposes of ‘engagement’ with such
entities. Such engagement efforts (again without additional funding) would
include {§2(b)(2)}:
• Ensure proven innovative and emerging
technologies can be included in existing and future acquisition contracts;
• Coordinate with organizations
that provide venture capital to businesses, particularly small businesses and
startup ventures, as appropriate, to assist the commercialization of innovative
and emerging technologies that are expected to be ready for commercialization
in the near term and within 36 months; and
• Address barriers to the utilization of innovative
and emerging technologies and the engagement of small businesses and startup
ventures in the acquisition process.
HR 5390 is the bill authorizing the re-organization and
re-naming of the DHS National Protection and Programs Directorate to emphasize
its role in cybersecurity.
The last two bills are spending bills. I will be watching
both of them for cybersecurity provisions in both the bills and committee
reports. I will, of course, also be watching the transportation bill (and
report) for chemical transportation safety and security provisions.
Commentary
It would be interesting to have the Congressional Budget
Office do an analysis of how much bills like HR 5388 and HR 5389 reduce funding
for current programs that will have money taken from them to support the new
programs outlined in these bills.
Now, I fully support keeping federal spending under control,
but Congress has gotten really stupid in the way that they authorize new
programs without providing any additional funding for them. The money is going
to have to come from somewhere and their failure to designate where it will
come from means that the public will probably never know what tradeoffs are
being made to support these new efforts.
I really suspect that these bills are more political theater
than actual efforts to accomplish anything.
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