Review - S 885 Reported in Senate – DHS Civilian Cyber Reserve

Last week, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee published their Report on S 885 [removed from paywall], the Department of Homeland Security Civilian Cybersecurity Reserve Act, and an amended version of the bill. The Committee met on May 17^th, 2023, and adopted (item 8) the substitute language offered by Sen Rosen (D,NV) without further amendment by a vote of 10 to 1. The bill would authorize DHS to establish a pilot program for a civilian cybersecurity reserve.

Moving Forward

With the publication of this report, the bill is now ready for consideration by the full Senate. The strong bipartisan support for the bill should be reflected in how the bill will be accepted when it comes to the floor of the Senate. Unfortunately, the sole vote against the bill came from Sen Paul (R,KY). One vote should not make a difference, but Paul is one of a handful of Senators that has an established reputation for objecting to unanimous consent motions for consideration of legislation. Typically, Paul does not need to have a specific problem with legislation to object to such motions, but a problem with a bill would certainly make such an objection that much more likely.

If the bill were to be considered under regular order, it would almost certainly pass with strong bipartisan support. Unfortunately, regular order takes too much of the Senate’s limited time for it to be used for any but the most politically important bills. This bill hardly meets that standard. So, the most likely way that this bill would be taken up by the Senate is through the unanimous consent process with fingers crossed.

 

For further information about the changes made to S 885 and Committee’ Report, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/s-885-reported-in-senate - subscription required.

Review - S 903 Introduced – Civil Cyber Reserve Pilot

Last month, Sen Rosen (D,NV) introduced S 903, the Department of Defense Civilian Cybersecurity Reserve Act. The bill would require the Army to carry out a pilot project to establish a Civilian Cybersecurity Reserve. No additional funding is authorized by the bill. The provisions of the bill are very similar to S 885, which was also introduced by Rosen.

Differences from S 885

The most obvious difference from S 885 is that this bill authorizes the Army to establish a CCR pilot to support the United States Cyber Command and the earlier bill was designed to assist CISA with cybersecurity operations. This difference leads to a number of minor administrative changes, like which congressional committees are involved the reporting process.

There is one other significant difference between the two bills. This bill does not include a definition of the term ‘significant incident’ that was found in the DHS version. So, instead of helping to respond to a significant incident the purpose of the Army version of the CCR would be to help Cyber Command to:

• Preempt, defeat, deter, or respond to malicious cyber activity,

• Conduct cyberspace operations,

• Secure information and systems of the Department of Defense against malicious cyber activity, and

• Assist in solving cyber workforce-related challenges.

Interestingly, also missing from the DOD version of this bill is any description of the components to be considered in the study on the design and implementation of the pilot project. A discussion of those topics was included in the CISA bill.

Moving Forward

Rosen is a member of the Senate Armed Forces Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration. This means that there may be enough influence to see this bill considered in Committee. With no funding authorization included, I see nothing in this bill that would engender any organized opposition to the bill. I suspect that the bill would receive bipartisan support in Committee if it were considered. Having said that, the Senate Homeland Security Committee did not take up S 885 as it was scheduled to do last month, so there may be some objections to these programs of which I am not aware.

 

For more details about the provisions of the bill, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/s-903-introduced - subscription required.

Review - S 885 Introduced – Civilian Cyber Reserve

Earlier this week, Sen Rosen (D,NV) introduced S 885, the Department of Homeland Security Civilian Cybersecurity Reserve Act. The bill would authorize DHS to establish a pilot program for a civilian cybersecurity reserve. No additional funding would be authorized by the bill.

This bill is nearly identical to the version of S 1324, the Civilian Cybersecurity Reserve Act, that was also introduced by Rosen and passed in the Senate under the unanimous consent process during the last session. No action was taken on the bill in the House.

Moving Forward

As I noted yesterday, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee is scheduled to take up this bill tomorrow along with 27 other bills. Typically, this means that there is broad support within the Committee for this bill, though there may be amendments that the Committee will consider. I suspect that there will be substantial bipartisan support for the bill. Last session, this version of the bill was able to pass the full Senate under the unanimous consent process, so it may be able to do so again.

Commentary

S 1324 passed late in the last session and never really had a chance to be taken up in the House. I suspect that if it were to make it to the floor for a vote that it would probably pass. The problem is going to be getting it to the floor because this is another unfunded program that is going to run afoul of the budgeting and spending restrictions planned for this session in the Republican controlled House. This would be another program where the spending hawks would be competing with the cybersecurity hawks in the Party and there will only be so many of those fights that either side wants to get into in the lead up to the 2024 elections. I am not sure that this would be a hill the cybersecurity hawks would want to die on.

 

For more details about the provisions of this bill, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/s-885-introduced - subscription required.

Bills Introduced – 3-21-23

Yesterday, with the Senate in Washington and the House meeting in pro forma session, there were 60 bills introduced. Five of those bills will receive additional coverage in this blog:

HR 1674 To enhance safety requirements for trains transporting hazardous materials, and for other purposes. Deluzio, Christopher R. [Rep.-D-PA-17]

S 885 A bill to establish a Civilian Cybersecurity Reserve in the Department of Homeland Security as a pilot project to address the cybersecurity needs of the United States with respect to national security, and for other purposes. Rosen, Jacky [Sen.-D-NV]

S 896 A bill to authorize Counter-UAS activities on and off commercial service airport property, and for other purposes. Lee, Mike [Sen.-R-UT] 

S 903 A bill to require the Secretary of the Army to carry out a pilot project to establish a Civilian Cybersecurity Reserve, and for other purposes. Rosen, Jacky [Sen.-D-NV]

S 905 A bill to prescribe zoning authority with respect to commercial unmanned aircraft systems and to preserve State, local, and Tribal authorities and private property with respect to unmanned aircraft systems, and for other purposes. Lee, Mike [Sen.-R-UT]