HR 866 Passed in House – ROUTER Act

This afternoon the House took up HR 866 the Removing Our Unsecure Technologies to Ensure Reliability and Security (ROUTERS) Act, under the suspension of the rules process. With just a little over six minutes of debate, the House passed the bill by a voice vote. The bill now moves to the Senate for consideration.

Last session the House passed a similar bill, HR 7589, but the Senate did not have time to take up the bill during the end of the 118th session. This bill is not politically important enough be considered under regular order, particularly early in a new administration. This bill might be a good candidate for the Senate’s unanimous consent process, but it may be easier to add the language to a spending or authorization bill.

Review - HR 866 Introduced – ROUTERS Act

Last month Rep Latta (R,OH) introduced HR 866, the Removing Our Unsecure Technologies to Ensure Reliability and Security (ROUTERS) Act. The bill would require the Department of Commerce to conduct a study on the national security risks of consumer routers and modems manufactured in China. No new funding is authorized by the legislation.

The bill is essentially identical to HR 7589, that was introduced by Latta in March of 2024. On March 20^th, 2024, the House Energy and Commerce Committee held a business meeting that included consideration of HR 7589. The Committee adopted the bill, without amendments, by a vote of 43 to 0. The Committee Report was published on May 19^th, 2024. HR 7589 was considered by the Full House on September 9^th, 2024, under the suspension of the rules process and was passed by a voice vote. No action was taken on the bill in the Senate.

Moving Forward

Both Latta, and his sole cosponsor {Rep Kelly, (D,IL)} are members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee to which this bill was referred for consideration. This means that there may be sufficient influence to see the bill considered in Committee. As with HR 7589 last session, I would expect the bill to receive strong bipartisan support, both in Committee and on the floor of the House.

Commentary

Since the requirements of this bill are specifically focused on “consumer” routers and similar devices, this bill would be unlikely to provide anyone with actionable information. Congress is unlikely to make the sale of Chinese routers illegal in this country. Even if it were to do so, there would be no practical way for them to eliminate those already here. This is another case of Congress trying to look like it is doing something about a problem over which it has no control.

 

For more information on the provisions of this bill, including an expanded commentary, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-866-introduced - subscription required.

 

Review – S 244 Introduced - ROUTERS Act

Last month Sen Blackburn (R,TN) introduced S 244, the Removing Our Unsecure Technologies to Ensure Reliability and Security (ROUTERS) Act. The bill would require the Department of Commerce to conduct a study on the national security risks of routers and modems manufactured in China. No new funding is authorized by the legislation.

The bill is very similar to S 4572 that was introduced by Blackburn in June of 2024. No action was taken on that bill. The language in this bill is more similar to the reported version of HR 7589 that was passed in the House on September 9^th, 2024 by a voice vote. While the bills described above are technically different, they would all have required the same actions to be taken.

Moving Forward

Both Blackburn and one of her two cosponsors {Sen Lujan (D,CO)} are members of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration. This means that there may be sufficient influence to see the bill considered in Committee. I see nothing in this bill that would engender any organized opposition to the provisions of the bill.

 

For more information on the provisions of the bill and a discussion about the process by which the bill could be passed in the Senate, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/s-244-introduced - subscription required.

HR 7589 Passed in House – ROUTERS Act

Yesterday afternoon, the House took up HR 7589, the Removing Our Unsecure Technologies to Ensure Reliability and Security (ROUTERS) Act, under the suspension of the rules process. After almost six minutes of debate, the House passed the bill by a voice vote.

The bill would require the Department of Commerce to conduct a study on the national security risks of routers and modems manufactured in China. No new funding is authorized by the legislation. A similar bill, S 4572, was introduced in the Senate in June. No action has yet been taken on that bill.

There is nothing in the bill that would be likely to engender any organized opposition in the Senate, so this bill might be passable under the Senate’s unanimous consent process.

Review - S 4572 Introduced – ROUTERS Act

Back in June, Sen Blackburn (R,TN) introduced S 4572, the Removing Our Unsecure Technologies to Ensure Reliability and Security (ROUTERS) Act. The bill would require the Department of Commerce to conduct a study on the national security risks of routers and modems manufactured in China. No new funding is authorized by the legislation.

This bill is VERY similar to HR 7589 which was reported favorably by the House Energy and Commerce Committee back in May. The two bills are technically not identical because the definition subsection is in §2(c) in the House bill and in §2(a) in the Senate bill. Otherwise, the provisions of the two bills are the same.

Moving Forward

Both Blackburn and her sole cosponsor {Sen Lujan (D,NM)} are members of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration. This means that there may be sufficient influence to see the bill considered in Committee. I see nothing in this bill that would engender any organized opposition. I suspect that the bill will receive substantial bipartisan support in Committee. As with most bills introduced in the Senate, this one has none of the political pressure necessary to bring the bill to the floor of the Senate under regular order. It is, however, a prime candidate for consideration under the unanimous consent process.

 

For more details about the provisions of this bill, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/s-4572-introduced - subscription required.

HR 7589 Reported in House – ROUTERS Act

Last week the House Energy and Commerce Committee published their report for HR 7589 [removed from paywall], the Removing Our Unsecure Technologies to Ensure Reliability and Security (ROUTERS) Act. The bill would require the Department of Commerce to conduct a study on the national security risks of routers and modems manufactured in China. No new funding is authorized by the legislation. The Committee met on March 20^th, 2024 to markup 28 bills, including the ROUTER Act. The bill was adopted without amendment by a vote of 43 to 0. The legislation is now cleared for potential action by the House.

There is no Congressional Budget Office report on HR 7589 included in the Report.

Moving Forward

The unanimous vote in the Energy and Commerce Committee indicates that the bill has broad bipartisan support. This makes the bill a strong candidate for consideration under the suspension of the rules process. This prohibits floor amendments, limits debate, and requires a super-majority vote for passage.

Review - HR 7589 Introduced – ROUTERS Act

Earlier this month, Rep Latta (R,OH) introduced HR 7589, the Removing Our Unsecure Technologies to Ensure Reliability and Security (ROUTERS) Act. The bill would require the Department of Commerce to conduct a study on the national security risks of routers and modems manufactured in China. No new funding is authorized by the legislation.

Moving Forward

The House Energy and Commerce Committee took up this bill (along with 27 others) this morning. There are no results posted to the hearing web site and it does not look like any amendments were offered. I suspect that the bill was ordered reported favorably by a significantly bipartisan vote.

 

For more details about the provisions of this legislation, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-7589-introduced - subscription required.

Committee Hearings – Week of 3-17-24

This week, with the House and Senate both in session, there is a relatively heavy hearing schedule. Budget hearings are starting the FY 2025 spending cycle. And there are a lot of markup hearings with three of particular interest here. There will also be an oversight hearing on the DHS cWMD office.

Budget Hearings:

The FY 2025 spending process starts this week with budget hearings. I do not cover these much anymore since Presidential Budgets have been ‘dead on arrival’ for almost a decade now, but they do deserve, at least, mention in passing.

Budget Hearings	House	Senate
DOE	3-20-24 E&C
SBA		3-20-24 SBC

Markup Hearings

Energy and Commerce Committee markup hearing – 3-20-24 – 28 bills:

HR 7655, Pipeline Safety, Modernization, and Expansion Act of 2024, and

HR 7589, Removing Our Unsecure Technologies to Ensure Reliability and Security (ROUTERS) Act

Transportation and Infrastructure Committee markup hearing – 3-20-24 – 2 bills:

HR 7659, the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2024

Science, Space, and Technology Committee markup hearing – 3-20-24  - 8 bills:

HR 7073, Next Generation Pipelines Research and Development Act

WMD Hearing

On Wednesday, the Subcommittee on Emergency Management and Technology of the House Homeland Security Committee will hold a hearing on “Securing our Nation from WMDs: A Review of the Department of Homeland Security's Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office”. The witness list includes:

• Mary Ellen Callahan, DHS,

• Tina Won Sherman, GAO, and

• Herbert Wolfe, DHS

On the Floor

With an overall agreement reportedly reached on the 2^nd Minibus spending bill (including DHS and DOD), there is a good chance that the bill will come to the floor of the House this week, but it seems unlikely that it will be able to clear both houses before the midnight Friday deadline to keep the government funded. Politicians may risk a technical shutdown over some of the weekend if they think that the House and Senate can finish the bill by Sunday, but it is more likely that there will be yet again a short-term continuing resolution to allow the political posturing in both the House and Senate to run its course.

Bills Introduced – 7-13-20

Yesterday with both the House and Senate meeting in pro forma session there were 39 bills introduced. Of those six may receive additional coverage in this blog:

HR 7588 To require the Secretary of Homeland Security to of the ability of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency of the Department of Homeland Security to fulfill its current mission requirements, and for other purposes. Rep. Katko, John [R-NY-24] 

HR 7589 To amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to establish term limits for the Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency of Department of Homeland Security, and for other purposes. Rep. Katko, John [R-NY-24]

HR 7590 To establish in the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency of the Department of Homeland Security a pilot program for the purpose of carrying out a talent exchange program between the private sector and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and for other purposes. Rep. Katko, John [R-NY-24]

HR 7608 Making appropriations for the Department of State, foreign operations, and related programs for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2021, and for other purposes. Rep. Lowey, Nita M. [D-NY-17]

HR 7609 Making appropriations for military construction, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2021, and for other purposes.  Rep. Wasserman Schultz, Debbie [D-FL-23] 

HR 7610 Making appropriations for Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies programs for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2021, and for other purposes. Rep. Bishop, Sanford D., Jr. [D-GA-2]

I will be watching the spending bills for cybersecurity provisions so I do not really expect that the first two will be seen again in this blog.

I doubt that the three CISA bills will have any specific language or definitions that will specifically apply to control system security, but CISA is so important to the cybersecurity community that I will probably cover these bills anyway.