HR 2838 Introduced – CG Authorization

Yesterday, during the pro forma session of the House, Rep. LoBiondo (R,NJ), introduced HR 2838, the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Act of 2011. LoBiondo is the Chair of the Coast Guard & Maritime Transportation Subcommittee of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

This proposed legislation is a significant deviation from the recent history of authorization bills in that it does not introduce a large number of new programs and responsibilities for the covered organization. The bill does include a new policy on sexual harassment/violence {§202} and it does call for an assessment to be made on “the need for additional Coast Guard prevention and response capability in the high latitude regions” {§308}. These and a few other new requirements form a really modest set of mandates for the Coast Guard.

No mention is made of the Maritime Transportation Security Act or any of its components.

GPS Interference

There is an interesting provision that the Federal Communications Commission and Lightspeed may find disconcerting. Section 302 of the bill would make it a Class E Felony to “knowingly and willfully operate[s] a device that interferes with the broadcast or reception of a radio, microwave, or other signal (including a signal from a global positioning system) transmitted, retransmitted, or augmented by the Coast Guard for the purpose of maritime safety”.

Where the appropriations committees have been requiring reports from various agencies on the reports of GPS interference by the proposed new broadband communications system from Lightspeed, Chairman LoBiondo appears to be trying to do something about it. It remains to be seen how liberal (excuse me for mentioning ‘liberal’ and ‘LoBiondo in the same paragraph) he expects the term ‘maritime safety’ to extend. Would it cover, for instance, control systems at portside chemical facilities?

Authorization Bill a Priority

According to the Subcommittee web site, passing a Coast Guard Authorization Bill is a priority for Chairman LoBiondo. We’ll have to watch how quickly it progresses in the next couple of weeks to see how much of a priority it really is. Of course, this bill will have to be reconciled with the desires of Chairman Rockefeller of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.

GPS Interference from New Cell Service

Readers may remember that back in January there was a ‘mysterious’ report of expected GPS outages by the FAA that were re-broadcast by ICS-CERT because of their potential for interfering with certain timing signals used by some SCADA systems. I never did see a good explanation for the cause of the problem until early this morning when I was looking over the late news from yesterday.

An interesting article over on NextGov.com was discussing a test conducted by LightSquared, a new cell service provider, to see if their cell phone broadcasts interfered with GPS reception on nearby frequencies in areas near the cell towers. Low and behold, in a limited area right near the tower they completely scrambled some GPS receivers and just threw off the accuracy of other receivers. There is still some debate apparently whether the broadcast signal broadcast outside of the allowed spectrum, which borders the frequency allotted for GPS receivers; or if the receivers were too sensitive to signals outside of the allotted GPS spectrum.

I see no mention in this report of whether or not any SCADA devices were tested to see if LightSquared’s signal interfered with the GPS timing signal used by those devices to coordinate timing of actions at multiple, remote locations. From the scope of the tests reported in this article it would seem that the SCADA device would have to be close to the cell phone tower, but I know of two pipe line pumping stations near where I live that appear to have cell towers within the station perimeter.

I am absolutely sure (SARCASM Warning) that the ICS-CERT, PHMSA and TSA Pipeline Security have all been intimately involved in these studies, as have the appropriate vendors and anyone else with an interest at SCADA operations at remote locations. Everyone is too smart and communicates too well for something like this to have fallen through the cracks.