Review S 2388 Introduced – Cyber Circuit Rider Program

Back in March Sen Cortez-Masto (D,NV) introduced S 1018, the Cybersecurity for Rural Water Systems Act. The bill would require USDA to establish a rural water and wastewater cybersecurity circuit rider program” similar to the one established in 7 USC 1926(a)(22), but focused on cybersecurity. The bill would authorize $10-million per year through 2028 to support the program.

This bill is essentially the same as S 2388, the Cybersecurity for Rural Water Systems Act, that was introduced by Cortez Masto in July 2023. No action was taken on that bill in the 118^th Congress.

Moving Forward

Neither Cortez-Masto nor her sole co-sponsor {Sen Rounds (R,ND)} are members of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration. This means that it is unlikely that there is sufficient influence to see the bill considered in Committee. Adding $10-million dollars in spending is sure to draw opposition from many Republicans, but there may still be sufficient bipartisan support in the Committee to see the bill approved if it were considered.

As with most bills, there would not be sufficient interest in this legislation to see the Senate leadership tie up the Senate for the time that it would be necessary to consider this bill under regular order. Because of the added spending involved, it would not be possible to pass this bill under the Senate’s unanimous consent process; it would take just a single Senator to object to passage of the bill to kill consideration.

Commentary

The current circuit rider program has about 147 personnel periodically helping small water systems and small wastewater treatment systems. CISA reports about 153,000 water treatment facilities in the US with the vast majority (93 % by one estimate -pg 3) being small systems that would be covered by the circuit rider program. That means that each circuit rider would have to cover about 1,000 systems. They do not get around very often.

 

For more details about the provisions of this bill, including a brief look at the related NRWA actions, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/s-2388-introduced-cyber-circuit-rider - subscription required.

Bills Introduced – 7-19-23

Yesterday, with both the House and Senate in session, there were 80 bills introduced. Two of those bills will receive additional coverage in this blog:

S 2388 A bill to amend the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act to establish a cybersecurity circuit rider program to provide cybersecurity-related technical assistance to certain entities that operate rural water or wastewater systems. Cortez Masto, Catherine [Sen.-D-NV]

S 2393 A bill to establish a food and agriculture cybersecurity clearinghouse in the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, and for other purposes. Rounds, Mike [Sen.-R-SD] 

Mention in Passing

There were two bills introduced yesterday that I thought might be of interest to political watchers. Sen Ernst (R,IA) and Rep Miller-Meeks (R,IA) respectively introduced S 2373 and H 4744. Each is described as “A bill to establish a minimum temperature for thermostats at the headquarters of the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency.” Since the bills are limited to just these two agencies I suspect that this is a political statement rather than an honest attempt to reduce federal energy expenditures.