HR 5593 Introduced - Cybersecurity Opportunity

Last week, Rep Johnson (D,GA) introduced HR 5593, the Cybersecurity Opportunity Act. This bill is nearly identical in intent to S 2305 introduced by Sen. Ossoff in June. This version is legislatively more complex but it would still have required DHS to “award grants to assist institutions of higher education that have an enrollment of needy students, historically Black colleges and universities, and minority-serving institutions, to establish or expand cybersecurity programs, to build and upgrade institutional capacity to better support new or existing cybersecurity programs.”

Johnson was not a member of either the House Education and Labor or Homeland Security Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration. Of the 40 cosponsors, however, 10 are members of the House Homeland Security Committee and five are members of the Education and Labor Committee. This should mean that there would be adequate influence to see this bill considered in Committee. I see nothing in this bill that would engender any specific opposition. I suspect that the bill would receive at least some measure of bipartisan support even without any Republican cosponsors.

Bills Introduced – 10-15-21

On Friday, with the House meeting in pro forma session, there were 32 bills introduced. One of those bills will receive additional coverage in this blog:

HR 5593 To enhance cybersecurity education. Rep. Johnson, Henry C. "Hank," Jr. [D-GA-4] 

Normally, I would have published this post on Saturday, but there was some sort of problem over at Congress.gov. No listing of bills introduced on Friday was available until this morning.

Bills Introduced – 09-18-14

This is a day late because it took the folks at Thomas.LOC.gov some extra time to list the 242 bills that were introduced on Thursday. This was the last day that both the House and Senate were scheduled to be in Washington until November 12^th so the number of political posturing bills was huge. Of all of those bills it looks like there are five that may be of specific interest to readers of this blog:

HR 5532 Latest Title: To improve the Compliance, Safety, Accountability initiative of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, and for other purposes. Sponsor: Rep Barletta, Lou (R,PA)

HR 5534 Latest Title: To amend the Safe Drinking Water Act to increase assistance for States, water systems, and disadvantaged communities; to encourage good financial and environmental management of water systems; to strengthen the Environmental Protection Agency's ability to enforce the requirements of the Act; and for other purposes. Sponsor: Rep Tonko, Paul (D,NY)

HR 5593 Latest Title: To amend the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 to enhance security clearance investigation procedures, and for other purposes. Sponsor: Rep Gabbard, Tulsi (D,HI)

S 2858 Latest Title: A bill to enhance rail safety and provide for the safe transport of hazardous materials, and for other purposes. Sponsor: Sen Menendez, Robert (D,NJ)

S 2869 Latest Title: A bill to enhance the homeland security of the United States, and for other purposes. Sponsor: Sen Coats, Daniel (R,IN)

The chances are slim that any of these bills will do anything more than take up space in the Library of Congress. I don’t expect that any of them will make it to committee consideration in the lame duck session.