Review - HR 1389 Introduced – GRID Act

Earlier this month, Rep Crow (D,CO) introduced HR 1389, the Guaranteeing Resilient Installations for Defense (GRID) Act. The bill would amend 16 USC 824o–1 to specifically allow DOE to “enter into contracts and cooperative agreements to improve the resilience of defense critical electric infrastructure”. No funding is authorized in the bill. This bill is identical to HR 8053 from the last session, no action was taken on that bill.

Moving Forward

As with HR 8053, Crow is not a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration, though one of his two cosponsors {Rep Peters (D,CA)} is. This may mean that there is sufficient influence for this bill to be considered in Committee. There is nothing in this bill that would engender any organized opposition. If it were considered, I would suspect that it would receive at least some level of bipartisan support.

Commentary

There was no action taken last session on HR 8053. While its late introduction was at least partially responsible for that inaction, the major reason is that the assigned committee just has no real interest in defense facility electrical power reliability. This is one (out of a multitude) of the problems with the committee system in Congress. The committee (House Armed Services Committee) which would have the most interest in solving the problems dealt with in this bill, does not have the jurisdictional oversight to write bills affecting the agency (DOE in this case) that can solve those problems. And the committee which does have jurisdiction is too busy with their own political priorities to have time to deal with this relatively minor bill.

 

For more information on the provisions of this bill, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-1389-introduced - subscription required.

Review - HR 8053 Introduced – DCEI Resilience

Last month, Rep Crow (D,CO) introduced HR 8053, the Guaranteeing Resilient Installations for Defense (GRID) Act. The bill would amend 16 USC 824o–1 to specifically allow DOE to “enter into contracts and cooperative agreements to improve the resilience of defense critical electric infrastructure”. No funding is authorized in the bill.

Moving Forward

Crow is not a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee to which this bill was referred for consideration, but one of his two cosponsors {Rep Peters (D,CA)} is a member. This means that there could be sufficient influence to see the bill considered in Committee. I see nothing in the bill that would engender any organized opposition to the bill. I suspect that if the bill were considered that it would receive bipartisan support. The bill would likely be considered by the full House under the suspension of the rules process.

Commentary

Crow and his other sponsor {Rep Bacon (R,NE)} are both member of the House Armed Services Committee. As such, it is easy to understand why they could be concerned about the resilience of electric power supplies for stateside military facilities. I would suspect that HASC would have a higher interest in such legislation being passed than would the Energy and Commerce Committee. But because of the way the Congress divides up responsibility for legislative review, it is very likely that this bill will never receive the consideration that it probably deserves.

For more details about the provisions of this bill, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-8053-introduced - subscription required. [Added 7-19-22 21:20 EDT]

Bills Introduced – 6-14-22

Yesterday, with both the House and Senate in session, there were 44 bills introduced. Three of those bills may receive additional coverage in this blog:

HR 8053 To provide the Secretary of Energy with the authority to enter into contracts and cooperative agreements to improve the resilience of defense critical electric infrastructure and reduce the vulnerability of critical defense facilities to the disruption of the supply of electric energy to those facilities. Rep. Crow, Jason [D-CO-6]

HR 8064 To amend the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act to establish demonstration and pilot projects to facilitate education and training programs in the field of advanced manufacturing. Rep. Torres, Norma J. [D-CA-35] 

S 4397 A bill to authorize the Secretary of Defense to build capacity for counter-unmanned aircraft systems operations. Sen. Lankford, James [R-OK] 

I will be watching both HR 8053 and HR 8064 for language or definitions that specifically include cybersecurity of industrial control systems within the scope of the coverage of the bill.

I will be watching S 4397 for language in the bill that could allow for transfer of DOD counter-drone technology to private sector for critical infrastructure defense. I am not really expecting this because of the other legal obstacles to such transfer, but….