Review - HR 612 Introduced – Healthcare Security

Back in January, Rep Escobar (D,TX) introduced HR 612, the Health Care Providers Safety Act of 2025. The bill would amend the Public Health Service Act by adding a new §399V-8, Grants to Health Care Providers to Enhance Security. It would allow HHS to “award grants to health care providers to pay for security services and otherwise enhance the physical and cyber security of their facilities, personnel, and patients to ensure safe access.” No funding is authorized for this proposed program.

This bill is essentially identical to HR 286 which Escobar introduced in January 2023. No action was taken on that bill in the 118^th Congress.

Moving Forward

While Escobar is not a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration, at least one of his 66 cosponsors, Rep Paul Tonko, (D,NY), is a member of the Committee. This means that there could be sufficient influence to see the bill considered in Committee. Having said that, this pro-abortion bill has little chance of being considered by the Committee in a Republican controlled House, and no chance of being recommended favorably if it were.

Commentary

Just reading the provisions of the bill, one would be hard pressed to see this as a legislative effort to aid abortion clinics. After reading Escobar’s press release, it is easy to see how this bill was crafted to do exactly that. That is unfortunate (ignoring the abortion issue) as grants to medical clinics and hospitals for security issues, particularly cybersecurity issues, would be a worthwhile proposition. This bill will not get a chance to affect that problem.

 

For more details about the provisions of this bill, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-612-introduced - subscription required.

Review - Bills Introduced – 1-22-25

Yesterday, with both the House and Senate in session, there were 72 bills introduced. Two of those bills will receive additional coverage in this blog:

HR 612 To amend the Public Health Service Act to authorize grants to health care providers to enhance the physical and cyber security of their facilities, personnel, and patients. Escobar, Veronica [Rep.-D-TX-16]

HJ Res 27 Providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Environmental Protection Agency relating to "Trichloroethylene (TCE); Regulation Under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)". Harshbarger, Diana [Rep.-R-TN-1]

For more information on these bills, including commentary on the possibility of consideration and passage of the bills, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/bills-introduced-1-22-25  [Link added 23:07 EST, 1-23-25]- subscription required.

 

NOTE: These introduction blog posts are being moved to my subscription site in a crass effort to expand my subscription base there. I am expanding some of the commentary that I provide on these introductions.

House Passes Three Homeland Security Bills

Yesterday the House took up 17 homeland security related bills under the suspension of rules process and passed all of them. Of these, three are probably of interest to readers of this blog:

• HR 437, the Medical Preparedness Allowable Use Act;

• HR 612, the United States-Israel Cybersecurity Cooperation Enhancement Act of 2017; and

• HR 677, the CBRN Intelligence and Information Sharing Act of 2017.

HR 437 passed by a voice vote after less than 10 minutes of ‘debate’; no one spoke in opposition to the bill.

HR 612 passed by a voice vote after about 16 minutes of ‘debate’; no one spoke in opposition to the bill.

HR 677 passed by a voice vote after about 5 minutes of ‘debate’; no one spoke in opposition to the bill.

All three of these bills would almost certainly pass in the Senate if they make it to the floor for consideration. Since earlier versions of all three of these bills passed in the House in the 114^th Congress, but were not taken up by the Senate, it is obvious that consideration by the Senate is not a given.

With these bills being passed in the first 30-days of the 115^th Congress, time constraints will not be a factor in whether or not they make it to the floor. What matters is whether or not there is a champion in the Senate with enough political influence with the leadership to bring them to the floor. If any of these bills are considered, they will most likely be considered under the Senate’s unanimous consent procedure with no debate and no actual vote. A single Senator can block a bill under this procedure.

Committee Hearings – Week of 01-29-17

With both the House and Senate back in town this week the number of committee hearings scheduled begins to approach normal. Of the hearings scheduled this week there is one that may be of specific interest to readers of this blog; electric sector cybersecurity.

Respond to Cybersecurity Threats

On Wednesday the Energy Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on “The Electricity Sector's Efforts to Respond to Cybersecurity Threats”. No witness list has yet been made available.

On the Floor

As I have mentioned in a couple of posts, the House will take up a number of homeland security related bills on Tuesday under their suspension of rules procedures. These procedures allow for limited debate (typically 40 minutes of mostly praise for the bill), no amendments, and a super majority required for passage. Bills considered under these procedures typically have significant bipartisan support.

Bills of interest in Tuesdays list include:

• HR 437 – Medical Preparedness Allowable Use Act (Sponsored by Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R,FL) / Homeland Security Committee)

• HR 612 – United States-Israel Cybersecurity Cooperation Enhancement Act of 2017 (Sponsored by Rep. James Langevin (D,RI) / Homeland Security Committee)

• HR 677 – CBRN Intelligence and Information Sharing Act of 2017 (Sponsored by Rep. Martha McSally (R,AZ) / Homeland Security Committee)

HR 612 Introduced – Cybersecurity Research

Earlier this week Rep. Langevin (D,RI) introduced HR 612, the United States-Israel Cybersecurity Cooperation Enhancement Act of 2017. The bill would establish a grant program to support joint cybersecurity research by US and Israeli organizations. The bill is essentially the same as HR 5843 that was passed in the House in the 114^th Congress (not covered in this blog).

The bill provides no new funding to support the grants.

The bill could cover industrial control system cybersecurity research projects. This is based upon the definition of ‘cybersecurity threat’ used in the bill {§2(d)(3)}. It uses the definition from Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 {Title I of Division N, PL 114-113; 6 USC 1501(5)} which in-turn relies on the broader definition of ‘information system’ from the same source.

Moving Forward

This bill is currently scheduled for a vote on Tuesday under the House suspension of the rules procedure. This provides for limited debate, no floor amendments and a super majority for passage. Consideration under this process signifies that the House leadership expects broad, bipartisan support for the bill.

If the bill makes it to the floor in the Senate (an open question as it is too early in the new Congress to tell how well the Senate is going to work), the bill would almost certainly be considered under the unanimous consent process.

Bills Introduced – 01-23-17

With both the House and Senate in session yesterday there were 34 bills introduced. Of those, only one may be of specific interest to readers of this blog:

HR 612 To establish a grant program at the Department of Homeland Security to promote cooperative research and development between the United States and Israel on cybersecurity. Rep. Langevin, James R. [D-RI-2] 

As with a similar bill last session (HR 5843) I will only be following this bill if it includes specific control system security provisions.