Last month, Sen Risch (R,ID) introduced S 2740, the Small Business Cyber Resiliency Act. The bill would amend the Small Business Act by adding a new §49, Small Business Cybersecurity. It would establish within the Small Business Administration (SBA) a Central Small Business Cybersecurity Assistance Unit, to serve as a central clearinghouse for cybersecurity resources for small business concerns across the Federal Government. No new funding is authorized in this legislation.
Moving Forward
Risch is a member of the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship to which this bill was assigned for consideration, but more importantly, one of his three cosponsors {Sen Shaheen (D,NH)} is Chair of that Committee. This means that there is sufficient influence to see the bill considered in Committee. I see nothing in this bill that would engender any organized opposition. I suspect that the bill would receive bipartisan support.
Since this is a Senate bill, bipartisan support is not
sufficient to see the bill move forward. This bill is not politically important
enough to take up the Senate’s time under regular order. That means for the
consideration of this bill on the Senate floor to take place, it would have to
be considered under the Senate’ unanimous consent process. That politically
fraught process allows any Senator to object for reasons having nothing to do
with the bill, effectively stopping the consideration. The only other way for
these provisions to make it into law would be for the language to be included
in some other must pass bill, like a spending or authorization bill. That is
probably more likely for this bill.
For more details about the provisions of this bill, see my
article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/s-2740-introduced
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