Bills Introduced – 03-28-19

Yesterday with both the House and Senate in session there were 106 bills introduced. Two of these may see future coverage in this blog:

HR 1975 To establish in the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency of the Department of Homeland Security a Chief Information Security Officer Advisory Committee. Rep. Katko, John [R-NY-24] 

S 954 A bill to provide grants to State, local, territorial, and Tribal law enforcement agencies to purchase chemical screening devices and train personnel to use chemical screening devices in order to enhance law enforcement efficiency and protect law enforcement officers. Sen. Brown, Sherrod [D-OH]

CISO’s typically have responsibility for operational technology in addition to information technology. It will be interesting to see if the definitions used in HR 1975 reflect that dichotomy.

I suspect that this bill will contain language specifying fentanyl detection. While detection of that dangerous (toxic) drug is certainly important to law enforcement officers, I will be watching for language that includes a broader array of toxic chemical detections in the grant program.

H 2642 Amended and Passed in Senate

On Thursday the Senate substituted the language from S 954 for the recently passed language of HR 2642, the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act of 2013, and then passed the measure by unanimous consent. The Senate version of the bill does not have any chemical security or chemical safety measures included.

There is a decent chance that the chemical safety and security measures included in the House version might make their way back into the bill during conference.

If a conference can resolve the differences in the two bills then the revised bill will stand a good chance of being able to pass in the House with at least some bipartisan support. A substantial number of Democratic votes will be required to overcome the objections of the conservative Republicans that blocked the passage of HR 1947.

The open question is if the House can vote to go to conference on this bill without passing a food stamp bill. A vote for conference would almost certainly pass with Democratic support but also with large and vocal opposition from conservative members. The question is whether or not the Speaker will be able to withstand the intra-party attacks if he brings the vote to the floor.

S 954 Introduced – Agriculture Authorizations

As I noted yesterday Sen. Stabenow (D,MI) introduced S 954, the Agriculture Reform, Food, and Jobs Act of 2013. Given the agriculturally related explosion at the West Fertilizer facility I kind of expected to see something in this bill addressing the security and/or safety of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, but at this point I don’t see anything related to that or other chemical security/safety or cybersecurity measures in the bill.

I will continue to monitor the progress of this bill for the addition of such provisions.

Bills Introduced – 05-15-13

We are starting to see the introduction of appropriations and authorizations bills for FY 2014, with one of each being submitted yesterday. The agriculture bill may contain chemical security or safety items in light of the West Fertilizer explosion. As always the DOD spending bill may be expected to include cybersecurity provisions.

S 954 Latest Title: An original bill to reauthorize agricultural programs through 2018. Sponsor: Sen Stabenow, Debbie (D,MI)

HR 1960 Latest Title: To authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2014 for military activities of the Department of Defense and for military construction, to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes. Sponsor: Rep McKeon, Howard P. "Buck" (R,CA)

We will just have to wait for the official publication of these bills to see what they actually contain.