HR 9689 Passed in House – DHS Cybersecurity Apprenticeship

Today the House took up HR 9689, the he DHS Cybersecurity Internship Program Act, under the suspension of the rules process. After four minutes of debate, the House passed the bill by a voice vote. The bill would amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 by adding a new §1334, Cybersecurity internship program. It would require DHS to establish a paid cybersecurity internship program. No new funding is authorized by this legislation.

The bill now proceeds to the Senate. With he short amount of time left in the session, the only way that this bill will be considered would be under the Senate's unanimous consent process, but a single voice could cut short that consideration.

Review - Committee Hearings – Week of 12-9-24

This week, possibly the next to last week of the 118^th Congress, with both the House and Senate in session, there is a fairly limited number of hearings on both sides of the Hill. Hearings include a look at drone defense and communications security. There are two bills of interest here that will be considered in the House under the suspension of the rules process. And we will probably see the House pass the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act.

Hearings

Drone Defense - On Tuesday, two subcommittees of the House Homeland Security Committee will hold a hearing on “Safeguarding the Homeland from Unmanned Aerial Systems”.

Communications Security - On Wednesday, the Subcommittee on Communications, Media and Broadband of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Technology Committee will hold a hearing on “Communications Networks Safety and Security”.

Suspension of the Rules

HR 9769 [removed from paywall] – Strengthening Cyber Resilience Against State-Sponsored Threats Act, and

HR 9689 [removed from paywall] – DHS Cybersecurity Internship Program Act

NDAA

There is a note on the bottom of the House schedule: “Legislation related to the National Defense Authorization Act is expected.” This will be the amendment to the Senate amendment to HR 5009 that I briefly discussed last night.

 

For more information on these hearings, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/committee-hearings-week-of-12-9-24 - subscription required.

Review – HR 9689 Introduced – DHS Cybersecurity Interns

Last month, Rep Clarke (D,NY) introduced HR 9689, the DHS Cybersecurity Internship Program Act. The bill would amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 by adding a new §1334, Cybersecurity internship program. It would require DHS to establish a paid cybersecurity internship program. No new funding is authorized by this legislation.

Moving Forward

Clarke is a member of the House Homeland Security Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration. This means that there may be sufficient influence to see the bill considered in Committee. There is nothing in this bill that would engender organized opposition. I suspect that there would be some level of bipartisan support for the legislation, but I am not sure that it would be enough to allow the bill to move to the floor of the House under the suspension of the rule process.

This bill is coming too late in the session to have a much of a chance to move forward. I would expect to see this bill reintroduced next session.

Commentary

One of the problems any intern program in DHS will have to deal with is that potential incidental exposure to classified information will limit the number of offices in which interns could be employed. The relatively brief period of internship would make obtaining a security clearance difficult, so DHS will have to carefully select the positions where these interns could serve. This should be addressed in the annual report to Congress.

 

For more information on the provisions of the program, including suggested changes to bill to deal with the security clearance issue, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-9689-introduced - subscription required.

Bills Introduced – 9-20-24

Yesterday, with both the House and Senate in session, there were 91 bills introduced. One of those bills will receive additional coverage in this blog:

HR 9689 To amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to establish a DHS Cybersecurity Internship Program, and for other purposes. Clarke, Yvette D. [Rep.-D-NY-9]