Review – Bills Introduced – 7-2-25

On Tuesday, that extremely long legislative day in the House, there were 24 bills introduced. One of those bills will receive additional coverage in this blog:

HR 4275 Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2025 Graves, Sam [Rep.-R-MO-6]

 

For more information on these bills, including legislative history for similar bills in the 118th, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/bills-introduced-7-2-25 - subscription required.

Short Takes – 7-3-25

Open Cosmos buys Portuguese startup to bolster space-based IoT capabilities. SpaceNews.com article. Pull quote: “The technology will support OpenConstellation, a shared satellite infrastructure initiative Open Cosmos announced in 2022 to enable partners to contribute and access Earth observation and connectivity data.”

Third-ever confirmed interstellar object blazing through Solar System. Yahoo.com article. Pull quote: “There is no reason to suspect an artificial origin for 3I/Atlas, but teams around the world are now racing to answer key questions about things like its shape, composition, and rotation.”

This painless nanoneedle patch might one day replace certain biopsies. ScienceNews.org article. Pull quote: “Using various AI models, the team compared the resulting 2-D maps of lipid compositions with those from biopsy samples with known results. In 25 out of 27 sample comparisons, the results from the two methods were similar. That suggests that the tissue samples collected by the patch contained sufficient information to detect a tumor, monitor disease progression or assess treatment response.”

Review – 4 Advisories Published – 7-3-25

Today CISA’s NCCIC-ICS published four control system security advisories for products from Mitsubishi (2) and Hitachi Energy (2).

Advisories

Mitsubishi Advisory #1 - This advisory describes an overly restrictive account lockout mechanism vulnerability in the Mitsubishi MELSEC iQ-F Series programable controllers.

Mitsubishi Advisory #2 - This advisory discusses two vulnerabilities {one of which is listed in CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog} in the Mitsubishi MELSOFT Update Manager.

Hitachi Energy Advisory #1 - This advisory describes five vulnerabilities in their MicroSCADA X SYS600 product.

Hitachi Energy Advisory #2 - This advisory describes an improper check for unusual or exceptional conditions vulnerability in the Hitachi Energy Relion 670/650 and SAM600-IO series devices.

 

For more information on these advisories, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/4-advisories-published-7-3-25 - subscription required.

Short Takes – 7-3-25 – Federal Register Edition

Critical Infrastructure Protection Reliability Standard CIP-015-1-Cyber Security-Internal Network Security Monitoring. Federal Register FERC final action. Summary: “The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) approves proposed Reliability Standard CIP-015-1 (Cyber Security—Internal Network Security Monitoring), which the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), submitted in response to a Commission directive. In addition, the Commission directs NERC to develop certain modifications to proposed Reliability Standard CIP-015-1 to extend internal network security monitoring to include electronic access control or monitoring systems and physical access control systems outside of the electronic security perimeter. The Commission also provides greater clarity about the term CIP-networked environment as it is used in proposed Reliability Standard CIP-015-1.” Effective Date: September 2^nd, 2025.

NEPA Implementation Rulemakings

• DOT - Procedures for Considering Environmental Impacts,

• DOT/NHTSA - Recission of NHTSA's 1975 Procedures for Considering Environmental Impacts,

• DOT/FHWA - Revision of National Environmental Policy Act Regulations,

• DOT/FRA - Revision of National Environmental Policy Act Regulations,

• DOT/FTA - Revision of National Environmental Policy Act Regulations,

• DOT/FAA - Notice of Rescission of FAA Order 1050.1F, Availability of FAA Order 1050.1G, Request for Comments,

• DOD/Navy - Recission of Procedures for Implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA),

• DOD/COE - Procedures for Implementing NEPA; Removal,

• DOD/COE - Procedures for Implementing NEPA; Processing of Department of the Army Permits,

• DOD/Army - Environmental Analysis of Army Actions (AR 200-2),

• DOI - National Environmental Policy Act Implementing Regulations,

• FERC - Removal of References to the Council on Environmental Quality's Rescinded Regulations, and

• USDA - National Environmental Policy Act.

EO 14311 - Establishing a White House Office for Special Peace Missions. Federal Register.

EO 14312 - Providing for the Revocation of Syria Sanctions. Federal Register.

CSB Publishes Annual Reminder About Weather Hazards – 7-2-25

Yesterday the Chemical Safety Board published their annual better-late-than-never (hurricane season stared on June 1^st) warning about the hazards that many chemical facilities face from the extreme weather conditions related to hurricane season.

The Board notes that:

““Extreme weather events continue to become more frequent and severe each year,” said CSB Chairperson Steve Owens. “Facilities that produce, use, store, or otherwise handle hazardous chemicals must take steps now to prepare for hurricanes and other extreme weather. The CSB’s materials provide important practical tools and recommendations that can help facilities mitigate their risk of severe damage and protect lives.””

The reminder includes links to a variety of CSB resources about extreme weather events. The list is slightly different than the links provided in last year’s warning.

PHMSA Publishes 6 Special Permit NPRMs – 7-2-25

Yesterday the DOT’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) published six notices of proposed rulemakings in the Federal Register. Five of these NPRMs propose to encoporate existing approved special permits into the Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR). The sixth would make minor changes to the special permit renewal process.

The five special permit conversion NPRM’s are (links to NPRMs):

Adoption of DOT Special Permit 14175,

Adoption of DOT Special Permit 21287,

Adoption of DOT Special Permit 21379,

Adoption of DOT Special Permit 21478, and

Adoption of DOT Special Permits 12412 and 11646

The permit renewal process would be changed by the following NPRM allowing a grantee to file an application to renew a special permit or approval any time before its expiration date rather than requiring the application to be filed 60 days in advance

Improving Efficiencies for Special Permits and Approvals Renewals

PHMSA is soliciting public comments on each of these NPRMs. Comments may be filed by clicking on the links above and then clicking on the ‘Submit a Public Comment’ button at the top of the page. Comments should be submitted by September 2^nd, 2025.

Rule for Consideration of Senate Amendment to HR 1

Early this morning the House Rules Committee finished up their own min-votarama on potentially adding provisions for floor amendments to the consideration of the Senate amendment to HR 1, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. By a final vote of 7 to 6 (pg14), {with Rep Roy (R,TX) and Rep Norman (R,SC) joining the Democrats in voting ‘Nay’} approved the rule for the consideration of the bill with limited debate (1 hour) and no floor amendments to be considered. The House is scheduled to take up the rule today at 9:00 am and then (if the rule is approved) consider the Senate version of HR 1.

There is really nothing in this bill that is of specific importance here. There are just three mentions in the 870 pages of the bill of the word ‘chemical’, two of them mentions in passing of ‘fentanyl precursor chemicals’. The term ‘cybersecurity’ gets mentioned five times, four of those mentions coming from §200006, Enhancement of Department of Defense resources for improving the efficiency and cybersecurity of the Department of Defense. Most of that section deals with DOD audits, but paragraph (4) allocates $20 million for defense cybersecurity programs of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. That is the only specific cybersecurity spending mentioned in the bill. There are no mentions of UAS or drone spending, much less new funding for counter UAS activities.

The votes against the rule by Roy and Norman may indicate that the House may have problems adopting the Senate amendment. There are a total of ten House members that regularly (not always to be sure) vote against bills along with Roy and Norman for ideological reasons. If all members are present (and that is an open question of how many will show up for this vote) the Republican leadership will fail to pass this bill if just four Republicans vote against the bill (and no Democrats support it), there is no provision for a tie breaking vote in the House.

Actually, not passing the bill today does not necessarily kill HR 1. This vote is on the Senate amendment. After a failed vote on that amendment, there might be a motion made to insist on the originally passed House language and request a conference committee be formed to work out the differences between the two bills. That would move behind closed doors the battles over details that we have been seeing for the last couple of weeks with another up and down vote in both bodies possible before the August recess.