Another Markup Hearing – 9-3-25

This afternoon, the House added another markup hearing to the schedule for this week. Tomorrow the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will hold a business meeting tomorrow to consider three items. One of those items is of interest here: HR 5061, the Counter-UAS Authority Security, Safety, and Reauthorization Act of 2025. The Committee plans to consider substitute language for that bill.

Review – 3 Advisories and Update Published – 9-2-25

Today CISA’s NCCIC-ICS published three control system security advisories for products from SunPower, Fuji Electric, Delta Electronics. They also updated an advisory for products from Hitachi Energy.

Advisories

SunPower Advisory - This advisory describes a use of hard-coded credentials vulnerability in the SunPower PVS6's BluetoothLE interface.

Fuji Advisory - This advisory describes a deserialization of untrusted data vulnerability in the Fuji FRENIC-Loader 4.

Delta Advisory - This advisory describes an improper restriction of XML external entity reference vulnerability in the Delta EIP Builder.

Updates

Hitachi Energy Update - This update provides additional information on the Relion 670/650 advisory that was originally published on July 1^st, 2025.

 

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

Short Takes – 9-2-25 – Space Geek Edition

Ted Cruz reminds us why NASA’s rocket is called the “Senate Launch System”. ArsTechnica.com article. Pull quote: “The reality is that, if Congress wants a sustained presence on the Moon, it needs one or both of SpaceX's Starship and Blue Origin's Mark II landers to work, along with their companion Starship and New Glenn rockets. Because these rockets are reusable, NASA could fly more frequent missions to the Moon. By itself, the SLS rocket is expected to have a flight rate of once every other year, or annually at best.”

An economic strategy for American space supremacy. SpaceNews.com commentary. Pull quote: “The Space Force’s Commercial Space Strategy explicitly calls for integrating commercial partners into national security operations, recognizing companies like SpaceX as effective national champions. Up-and-coming firms like Firefly and Axiom Space represent the next wave of this commercial revolution. This partnership offers tremendous benefits: rapid innovation, cost reduction and an entrepreneurial vigor that rivals simply cannot match.”

NASA advances lunar nuclear plan with commercial focus. SpaceNews.com article. Pull quote: “The reactor would operate in the lunar south polar region for at least 10 years. A cover letter accompanying the draft [Announcement for Partnership Proposals] seeks input on issues including cybersecurity, physical security and reactor fuel.”

Space Force goes commercial for space domain awareness. DefenseOne.com article. Pull quote: “The U.S. Space Force has, through SpaceWERX [link added], spent recent years working with the private investment community to foster relationships with newer companies and keep up with the rapid development of commercial space technology.”

What's next for SpaceX's Starship Mars rocket after Flight 10 success? Space.com article. Pull quote: “Some of those V3 flights will head to Mars, if all goes to plan: SpaceX is targeting 2026 for its first-ever Starship Red Planet missions, which will be uncrewed, stripped-down test flights. "They're just going to put minimally viable landers on the surface — land right on the skirt, no [landing] legs," SpaceX spokesman Dan Huot said during a Flight 10 webcast on Monday evening. (A launch attempt that day was scrubbed due to weather.)”

Review – Committee Hearings – Week of 8-31-25

For the first week back in session for both the House and Senate, this is an incredibly light hearing schedule. Still, spending bills are still being crafted, one markup hearing of interest is being held, and a space geek hearing is being held.

Spending Bills

Tuesday – House Appropriations (Subcommittee) – LHH

Tuesday – House Rules – HR 4553, EWR

Wednesday – House Appropriations - FinServices

Markup Meetings

On Wednesday the House Homeland Security Committee will hold a business meeting where seven bills will be considered.

Space Geek Hearings

On Wednesday the Senate Commerce, Science, and Technology Committee will hold a hearing on “There’s a Bad Moon on the Rise: Why Congress and NASA Must Thwart China in the Space Race”.

On the Floor

The House in a short week will take up nine bills under the suspension of the rules process and four bills. Those bills will include three disapproval resolutions and one spending bill, HR 4553, the FY 2026 EWR spending bill.

The Senate will start consideration of S 2296, the National Defense Authorization Act.

 

For more information on these hearings, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/committee-hearings-week-of-8-31-25 - subscription required.

RegInfo.gov Is Now Working

On August 19^th, 2025 I reported problems with the RegInfo.gov website, with search data not available on their Regulatory Review tab and their Information Collection Review tab. Today the search function on both tabs are now active.

The OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) has not been out of business while these search functions have not been working. They have still been accepting rulemakings from federal agencies for review and approving rulemakings. They have also been approving new and revised information collection requests. All of these actions have been fodder for blog posts here.

Since August 18^th OIRA has accepted 24 rulemakings for review. The table below shows the ten rulemakings in that period that would probably been covered in this blog:

During the same period OIRA approved nine rulemakings. Three of those rulemakings probably would have been covered in this blog:

Just a quick reminder, my blog posts about such OIRA actions does not necessarily mean that I will cover the rulemakings in any depth when they are published in the Federal Register. In most cases the only mention of that publication will be found in my ‘Short Takes’ blog post on the day of publication.

OIRA also approved 124 ICR submissions/renewals during the period of the outage. None of those approvals would have been covered in this blog.

Short Takes – 9-1-25

Ukraine strikes a major Russian oil refinery for a second time in 3 days, an official says. APNews.com article. Pull quote: “The attack late Sunday hit a refinery in the Volgograd region, which is one of Russia’s 10 biggest refining facilities, processing close to 6% of the country’s oil, an official in Ukraine’s Security Service told The Associated Press.”

A cold today helps keep the COVID away. ScienceNews.org article. Pull quote: “The researchers also looked at why a cold might prevent or temper COVID-19. The smaller viral load was linked to the production of certain airway defense proteins activated by rhinovirus. It appears that having a cold means those proteins are ready if the coronavirus appears.”

Bad news awaits Republicans returning to DC. TheHill.com commentary (from a Fox News commentator). Pull quote: “Democrats risk paying a price with voters if they force a government shutdown. But 20 million Americans are about to be hit with higher health insurance premiums due to the Trump cuts. A big bloc of voters across party lines has already told pollsters that they agree with Democrats on this.”

Candida auris: Study reveals who is most vulnerable to deadly fungus infection. TheHill.com article. Pull quote: “Candida auris is especially dangerous in health care settings, like hospitals and nursing facilities, where it can live on surfaces – like door knobs, counters and bed rails – for long periods of time. It’s resistant to antimicrobials, having developed a resistance to the drugs designed to kill it, making it hard to clean and eliminate.”

Widespread Layoffs for Horses. ScientificAmerican.com archived article from 1919. Pull quote: “Professional horse-breeders still boost for the business; but they are merely whistling to keep up their courage. The days of the horse as a beast of burden are numbered. The automobile is taking the place of the carriage horse; the truck is taking the place of the dray horse; and the farm tractor the place of the farm horse. Nor is there any cause to bemoan this state of affairs. We all admit that the horse is one of the noblest of animals; and that is a very good reason why we should rejoice at his prospective emancipation from a life of servitude and suffering.” Note: the article is paywalled, but the linked table of contents page is not. An interesting snapshot of 1919.

Kinetic cyberattacks damage equipment: What network security misses puts us at risk. ControlGlobal.com article. Pull quote: “Kinetic cyberattacks have yet to be explicitly addressed in any sector’s cybersecurity guidance, including electric, oil/gas, maritime, food and agriculture, etc. Network security organizations do not have the technical capabilities to address kinetic cyberattacks which are engineering-based and don’t compromise the integrity of the data packets, just the data in the packets. Without engineering participation, kinetic cyberattacks cannot be detected or mitigated. The July hearing clearly demonstrated that appropriate workforce development for control system cybersecurity is needed. The August 13 CISA OT asset inventory guidance document doesn’t address the issues exploited by Aurora, Stuxnet and the Chinese. That is, you may have an inventory of the OT devices, but you don’t know if the OT devices have been compromised. Moreover, consider how much more widespread and extensive damage could be done by incorporating artificial intelligence into kinetic cyberattacks.”

Review – HR 4553 Introduced – FY 2026 EWR Spending

Back in July Rep Fleischmann introduced HR 4553, the Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2026. The House Appropriations Committee published their Report on the bill. There is a single cybersecurity mention in the bill. The Report contains a number of cybersecurity, chemical and counter unmanned aircraft systems discussion.

This bill is similar to HR 8997 that was introduced by Rep Fleischmann (R,TN) in July of 2024. The House Appropriations Committee published their Report on the bill and consideration of the bill began in the House, but no final vote was ever taken.

Moving Forward

The House Rules Committee is scheduled to meet tomorrow afternoon to formulate the rule for the consideration of HR 4553. The Rules Committee will determine which of the 82 amendments proposed to date will be considered during the consideration of the bill on the floor of the House.

The House is scheduled to consider the bill under that rule on Wednesday or Thursday. Even if this bill is passed in the House this week, it would be unlikely to be considered in the Senate before the end of the month. There is too much on the Senate’s plate and the focus is going to be on crafting a passable continuing resolution.

Commentary

Last year the House leadership could not get HR 8997 to a final vote in the House. The radical right would not support the bill because it did not cut spending enough. It does not look like enough spending changes were made to this bill to change that opposition. The difference this year is that the President is looking for a spending bill win leading up to the negotiations on a CR to keep the government operating past September   30^th. Failure to pass this bill will weaken the Republican’s discussion position with respect to the Democrats.

 

For more details about the cybersecurity, chemical, and cUAS provisions of this bill, as well as a discussion about the Democratic opposition, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-4553-introduced-fy-2026-ewr-spending - subscription required.