HR 4432 Passed in House – UAS Threat Assessment

Yesterday the House passed HR 4432, the Protecting Critical Infrastructure Against Drones and Emerging Threats Act by a voice vote. There was only about six minutes of ‘debate’ on the bill with no voices heard in opposition.

The language that disappeared between the Committee Hearing and the publication of the Report stayed gone. The reported language was the version that the House adopted.

If this bill is taken up in the Senate it will be considered under the Senate’s unanimous consent process. The major draw back to that process is that a single Senator could block consideration of the bill for reasons totally unrelated to the provisions being considered.

HR 4432 Reported in House – UAS Threat Assessment

Last month the House Homeland Security Committee published their report on HR 4432, the Protecting Critical Infrastructure Against Drones and Emerging Threats Act along with the amended version of that bill.

An interesting thing happened on the way to the Government Printing Office. Section 2(c) of the original bill seems to have disappeared. Readers will remember that I complained about that section of the bill that would have exempted DHS from the Information Collection Request requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act. Now changes made to a bill after it has been approved in Committee are not too unusual, but there is language in the Report’s ‘Section-by-Section Analysis of the Legislation’ (pg 6, last paragraph). It will be interesting to see if the language is in the bill when it is passed in the House.

Yes, the bill will almost certainly be passed in the House after it is taken up under the suspension of the rules process and it will pass with a substantial bipartisan vote.

HR 6620 Introduced – UAS Threat Assessment

Back in July Rep. Richmond (D,LA) introduced HR 6620, the Protecting Critical Infrastructure Against Drones and Emerging Threats Act. The bill requires data collection and analysis activities about the threats posed by unmanned aircraft systems (UAS).

The bill would require the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis (OIA) within 120 days to {§2(a)}:

• Request additional information from other agencies of the Federal Government, State and local government agencies, and the private sector relating to threats of unmanned aircraft systems and other emerging threats associated with such new technologies;

• Develop and disseminate a security threat assessment regarding unmanned aircraft systems and other emerging threats associated with such new technologies;

• Establish a secure reporting infrastructure for reporting information on emerging threats, such as the threat posed by unmanned aircraft systems

Within one year of the bill being adopted, OIA would be required to report to Congress on the threat posed by unmanned aircraft systems.

No monies are authorized by this bill.

Moving Forward

This bill will be considered by the House Homeland Security Committee tomorrow. I suspect that the bill will receive bipartisan support. If this bill does come to the floor of the House before the end of the session (probable) it will almost certainly be considered under the suspension of the rules process with minimal debate, no amendments and would require a supermajority to pass.

I really doubt that if this bill were considered in the House that it would make it to the floor of the Senate before the 115^th Senate adjourns for good in December.

Commentary

This is another one of those motherhood and apple pie bills that allows congress critters to feel good about ‘doing something’ without raising any controversies or spending any money. Unfortunately, it will accomplish virtually nothing.

Oh yes, the bill includes an attempt to cover the important tech buzz words in §2(b)(3):

“establish and utilize, in conjunction with the Chief Information Officer of the Department and other relevant entities, a secure communications and information technology infrastructure, including data-mining and other advanced analytical tools, in order to access, receive, and analyze data and information in furtherance of the responsibilities under this section, including by establishing a voluntary mechanism whereby critical infrastructure owners and operators may report information on emerging threats, such as the threat posed by unmanned aircraft systems.”

They missed ‘artificial intelligence’ and ‘blockchain’; maybe they can add those tomorrow.

Bills Introduced – 07-26-18

Yesterday with both the House and Senate in session (and the House preparing to leave on its extended summer break) there were 131 bills introduced (109 in the House). Of these, five may be of specific interest to readers of this blog:

HR 6555 To amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to establish a DHS Cybersecurity On-the-Job Training and Employment Apprentice Program, and for other purposes. Rep. Jackson Lee, Sheila [D-TX-18]

HR 6609 To amend title 46, United States Code, to reauthorize the port security grant program, and for other purposes. Rep. Meng, Grace [D-NY-6]

HR 6617 To provide for a legal framework for the operation of public unmanned aircraft systems, and for other purposes. Rep. Poe, Ted [R-TX-2]

HR 6620 To require the Department of Homeland Security to prepare a threat assessment relating to unmanned aircraft systems, and for other purposes. Rep. Richmond, Cedric L. [D-LA-2]

S 3288 A bill to amend title 18, United States Code, to provide the Department of Justice needed legal authorities to combat cybercrime, including state sponsored cybercrime, and for other purposes. Sen. Graham, Lindsey [R-SC]

I suspect HR 6555 will be a program for federal employees, but it would still be worthwhile to watch how such a program was established. It could actually be an interesting model for similar programs in the private sector.

It will be interesting to see what sorts of restrictions are placed on public unmanned aircraft systems in HR 6617.

S 3288 will bear close scrutiny of definitions as they will likely have unintended bearing on activities of cybersecurity researchers.