House Sends S 1180 (IPAWS) to President

This evening the House considered S 1180, the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) Modernization Act, under suspension of the rules. Using only 18 minutes of the 40 minutes allocated to debate of the bill, the House approved the bill by a voice vote.

Since this bill codifies responsibility for IPAWS in a new 6 USC 526, this should settle the ongoing disagreement between the House Homeland Security Committee and Energy and Commerce Committee over the which committee has oversight jurisdiction. This dispute is one of the things that held up the House from considering their two versions of this bill.

Congressional Hearings – Week of 3-20-16

This week the House will be in session for a short week and then leave for their two week (plus) Easter Recess while the Senate is already home for their two weeks. Budget hearings are slowing down and there will be one non-budget hearing of potential interest to readers of this blog.

Budget

Only one budget hearing this week of potential interest. The Defense Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee will be holding a hearing on Tuesday to look at the budget for Guard and Reserve forces. Since many of the cybersecurity troops are found in Guard and Reserve units, this portion of the budget may be of interest.

Cyber Insurance

Also on Tuesday the Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protections and Security Technologies Subcommittee of the House Homeland Security Committee will be holding a hearing on “The Role of Cyber Insurance in Risk Management”. The witness list includes:

• Matthew McCabe, Marsh Finpro;

• Adam W. Hamm, North Dakota Insurance Commissioner;

• Daniel Nutkis, Health Information Trust Alliance;

• Tom Finan, Ark Network Security Solutions

I have not really begun to address cyber insurance in this blog, mainly because it has not yet become a real part of control system risk management. I would expect that this hearing could provide some insight into how this risk management tool is evolving, but I do not think that there will be any mention of ICS related insurance. Watch, however, for mention of 3^rd party liability. Once the insurance industry starts to address that in cyber insurance then I would expect to start to see real control system policies being written.

On the Floor

There will be one bill coming to the House floor this week that may be of specific interest to readers of this blog, S 1180 – Integrated Public Alert and Warning System Modernization Act of 2015. It is interesting that the House leadership has decided to take up this bill instead of either of the two House bills on this topic.

The bill will be considered under suspension of the rules, so there will be no amendments and limited debate. I expect that the bill will be sent to the President with substantial bipartisan support.