HR 1223 Passed in House – ANCHOR Act

Yesterday the House began consideration of HR 1223, the ANCHOR Act, under the suspension of the rules process. After completing just eight minutes of the scheduled 40 minutes of debate, the House was delayed from voting on the bill due to a lack of quorum, so the vote was postponed until today. This afternoon the House passed the bill by a vote of 412 to 11. The bill now goes to the Senate for consideration.

The bill would require the National Science Foundation (NSF) to submit a plan to improve the cybersecurity and telecommunications of the Academic Research Fleet. No new funding is authorized by the legislation.

The bill now faces the problem of political capital in the Senate. This bill is not politically important enough to be considered under regular order. That means, as a practical matter, that it must either pass under the unanimous consent process, or be ignored in that body. A similar fate befell HR 7630, a near identical bill introduced in the 118^th Congress.

Review - HR 1223 Introduced – ANCHOR Act

Back in February Rep Fong (R,CA) introduced HR 1223, the Accelerating Networking, Cyberinfrastructure, and Hardware for Oceanic Research (ANCHOR) Act. The bill would require the National Science Foundation (NSF) to submit a plan to improve the cybersecurity and telecommunications of the Academic Research Fleet. No new funding is authorized by the legislation.

The bill is similar to HR 7630, the Accelerating Networking, Cyberinfrastructure, and Hardware for Oceanic Research (ANCHOR) Act, that was introduced by Rep Garcia (R,CA) in March, 2024. The House Science, Space, and Technology Committee held a markup hearing on March 20^th, 2024 and ordered the bill reported favorably by a vote of 38 to 0. The Committee Report was published on May 23^rd, 2024. The bill was taken up by the full House on September 23^rd, 2024 under the suspension of the rules process and passed by a voice vote. No action was taken in the Senate on this bill, nor on a similar bill (S 3943, the ANCHOR Act) introduced by Sen Padilla (D,CA) in March of 2024. Padilla has introduced a similar bill (S 318) this session.

Moving Forward

Fong and all three of his cosponsors {Rep Stevens (D,MI), Rep Obernolte (D,CA), and Rep McBride (D,DE)} are members of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration. This means that there may be sufficient influence to see this bill considered in Committee. While last session, the earlier bill moved through the Committee and the floor of the House with no significant opposition, the focus of the 119^th Congress is somewhat different than that of the 118^th. I suspect that if HR 1223 were considered it would still receive strong bipartisan support, the question remains whether the leadership would remain as supportive in the new legislative environment.

 

For more information about the provisions of this bill, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-1223-introduced - subscription required.

HR 7630 Passed in House – ANCHOR Act

Today, the House took up HR 7630 [removed from paywall], the Accelerating Networking, Cyberinfrastructure, and Hardware for Oceanic Research (ANCHOR) Act, under the suspension of the rules process. After less than ten minutes of debate, the bill was passed by a voice vote. The bill would require the National Science Foundation (NSF) to submit a plan to improve the cybersecurity and telecommunications of the Academic Research Fleet. No new funding is authorized by the legislation.

The bill now moves to the Senate for consideration. The legislation is not politically important enough to be considered under regular order, but it does appear to be a good candidate for consideration under the Senate’s unanimous consent process. A slightly different version of the bill, S 3943 [removed from paywall], was introduced in the Senate and subsequently was ordered reported favorably (without a written report) on August 1^st by the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee.

Review - S 3943 Introduced – ANCHOR Act

Last month, Sen Padilla (D,CA) introduced S 3943, the Accelerating Networking, Cyberinfrastructure, and Hardware for Oceanic Research (ANCHOR) Act. The bill would require the National Science Foundation (NSF) to submit a plan to improve the cybersecurity and telecommunications of the Academic Research Fleet. No new funding is authorized by the legislation. The bill is very similar to HR 7630. That bill was adopted without amendment by the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee on March 20^th, 2024.

Differences From HR 7630

The major difference from the House bill is that Section 4 of the earlier bill is absent in the Senate version. That section authorized NSF to support cybersecurity upgrades described in the plan required in §3. Section 4 would have also required a report to Congress on progress made on the implementation of the plan.

Moving Forward

While Padilla is not a member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration, two of his three cosponsors are members. This means that there could be sufficient influence to see this bill considered in Committee. I see nothing in this bill, especially since it contains no new funding or regulatory requirements, that would engender any organized opposition to the legislation. I suspect that there would be bipartisan support for the bill. Unfortunately, this is yet another bill that is not politically important enough to take up the time to considered by the full Senate. If this bill is to move forward, it would need to be considered under the unanimous consent process (a politically fraught process) or be included in some larger, more politically necessary bill.

 

For more details about the provisions of this bill, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/s-3943-introduced - subscription required.

Review - HR 7630 Introduced – ANCHOR Act

Last month, Rep Garcia (R,CA) introduced HR 7630, the Accelerating Networking, Cyberinfrastructure, and Hardware for Oceanic Research (ANCHOR) Act. The bill would require the National Science Foundation (NSF) to submit a plan to improve the cybersecurity and telecommunications of the Academic Research Fleet. No new funding is authorized by the legislation.

Moving Forward

Both Garcia and his sole cosponsor {Rep Stevens (D,MI)} are members of the House Science, Space, and Technology 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, especially since it contains no new funding or regulatory requirements, that would engender any organized opposition to the legislation. I suspect that there would be bipartisan support for the bill. That support should be large enough to allow consideration of the bill under the suspension of the rules process.

 

For more details about the provisions of this bill, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-7630-introduced - subscription required.

Bills Introduced – 3-12-24

Yesterday, with both the House and Senate in session, there were 56 bills introduced. One of those bills will receive additional attention in this blog:

HR 7630 To require a plan to improve the cybersecurity and telecommunications of the U.S. Academic Research Fleet, and for other purposes. Garcia, Mike [Rep.-R-CA-27]