Review - S 1777 Introduced – Cybersecurity Cooperation

Back in May, Sen Rosen (D,NV) introduced S 1777, Abraham Accords Cybersecurity Cooperation Act of 2023. The bill would allow DHS to take actions to enhance cybersecurity coordination efforts with countries associated with the Abraham Accords. No funding is authorized by this legislation.

Moving Forward

Rosen is not a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration, but one of her cosponsors {Sen Booker (D,NJ)} is a member. This means that there may be sufficient influence to see this bill considered in Committee.

Because of the Middle East (on both sides of the Israeli fence) focus of this legislation there is going to be a mixed bag of support and opposition to the provisions of this bill. On balance, I suspect that there will be more bipartisan support than opposition. I do not, however, think that that support will be sufficient to move this bill to the floor of the Senate under regular order and the legislation would never survive consideration under the unanimous consent process. The best option for this would be to see it included as a part of a spending or authorization bill.

For more details about the provisions of this bill, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/s-1777-introduced - subscription required.

Bills Introduced – 5-31-23

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

S 1777 A bill to engage in cybersecurity cooperation with Abraham Accords countries, and for other purposes. Rosen, Jacky [Sen.-D-NV] 

I will be watching this bill for language and definitions that include control system security within the scope of the coverage.

Note: The Abraham Accords are a series of joint normalization statements initially between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain, effective since September 15, 2020. According to the State Department web site, this includes UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan.