CFATS and HR 8070 – NDAA Amendment

Yesterday, the American Chemistry Council published a press release supporting a proposed amendment to HR 8070, the FY 2025 National Defense Authorization Act, that would reinstate the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program. The amendment proposed by Rep Lee (R,FL) is one of over 1300 that have been proposed to the House Rules Committee for possible consideration if the bill moves to the floor under a rule.

Amendment 594 would change the expiration date for the CFATS program from July 27^th, 2024 to “the date that is two years after the date of the enactment of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025.” The bipartisan amendment has nine cosponsors.

The House Rules Committee has not yet set a hearing date for the formulation of a rule for the consideration of HR 8070. There is no way of knowing if this particular amendment would be included the rule for the consideration of HR 8070.

As I mentioned in a post yesterday, because of the bipartisan support seen for HR 8070 in the Armed Services Committee, there is a very real possibility that any rule for the consideration of HR 8070 could be blocked in the Rules Committee or on the floor of the House by radical Republicans who feel that the bill does not adequately reflect their views. In that case, the bill would likely, again because of the bipartisan support the bill enjoys, be considered under the suspension of the rules process. That process does not allow for consideration of any floor amendments.

Yesterday’s press release notes that the ACC, along with three other industry support organizations, has sent letters to the House leadership supporting Lee’s amendment. The letters were sent to Speaker Johnson and Minority Leader Jefferies. I suspect that it would have been helpful if it had also been sent to the Chair and Ranking Member of the House Rules Committee.

Based upon the earlier 409 to 1 vote for HR 4470, the bill similarly extending the CFATS program that is currently blocked in the Senate, I suspect that amendment 594 would receive strong bipartisan support if it were offered during the consideration of HR 8070. The Senate would be expected to consider their own language for the bill when it is considered in that body and similar language would not likely make its way into the Senate version due to the continued opposition to the CFATS program by Sen Paul (R,KY). I suspect, however, that the CFATS language could find itself in the version of the bill ultimately reported by the conference committee if the language is adopted in the House version of the bill.

Review - HR 8070 Reported in House – FY 2025 NDAA

Last week, the House Armed Services Committee published their report on HR 8070, Servicemember Quality of Life Improvement and National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025. The reported bill includes two cybersecurity and two uncrewed aircraft system provision of potential interest here. The Committee completed their final markup of the bill on May 22^nd, 2024 and ordered the bill reported favorably by a strongly bipartisan vote of 57 to 1.

The bill’s provisions of potential interest here include:

• §902. Executive Agent for Countering Threats Posed by Small Unmanned Aircraft.

• §924. Establishment Of the Drone Corps as A Basic Branch of the Army.

• §1501. Authority to accept voluntary and uncompensated services from cybersecurity experts.

• §1502. Establishment of the Department of Defense Hackathon program.

The Committee Report includes the following cyber related discussions that may be of interest here:

• Connected Vehicle Cybersecurity Center (pg 50),

• Digital literacy at Army (pgs 52-3),

• Enhanced environment for Multi-Domain Operations Cybersecurity Testing (pg 54),

• Briefing on Cybersecurity Threats to Water Infrastructure (pg 296),

• Clarification and Deconfliction of Responsibilities for Cybersecurity Functions within the Department of Defense (pg 298), and

• Digital Reserves (pg 301).

Moving Forward

Last week, the House Rules Committee called for potential amendments to HR 8070 with an amendment deadline of close of business on May 31^st, 2024. To date there have been 1,259 proposed amendments submitted, 114 of those were submitted after the published deadline. To date there has been no meeting notice published for the Rules Committee to formulate the rule for the consideration of the bill.

Commentary

Normally, the approval of the reported version of the bill by a vote of 57 to 1, a strong show of bipartisan support for the bill, would mean that the bill would be expected to move smoothly through the floor consideration of the bill through a rule with various floor amendments being considered. In the 118^th Congress, however, this could mean that the provisions of bill do not adequately target the objectives of the more conservative members of the Republican caucus. In the last year, that has frequently meant that the Rules Committee could not craft a rule for consideration of the bill, or if such a rule was developed, would be effectively vetoed by a small number of Republicans voting no.

The bipartisan support for the current bill, could allow the Leadership to bring the bill to the floor under the suspension of the rules process and depend on a number of Democratic votes to pass the bill. Each time that happens, the support of Speaker Johnson by the Republican fringe is further eroded.

 

For more details about the provisions of the bill and the report discussions, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-8070-reported-in-house - subscription required.

Amendments Made in Order – HR 8070, FY 2025 NDAA

Earlier today, the House Rules Committee met to formulate the rule for the consideration of HR 8070, the FY 2025 National Defense Authorization Act. The rule allows for a structured rule with limited debate on a limited number of amendments. Neither the proposed resolution (which forms the rule upon which the House will vote), nor the Committee Report for that resolution (which includes the list of amendments approved for consideration) have been published on the HR 8070 page on the Committee’s website.

The Committee has annotated a number of the 1387 amendments listed on the page as being proposed for floor consideration of HR 8070 as being ‘Made in Order’. While this is not the official listing in the Committee Report, it should accurately affect which amendments will be listed in the report.

I have listed proposed amendments below that are marked as ‘Made in Order’ and appear to be of potential interest here in three separate categories: Cybersecurity Related Amendments (4), Space Related Amendments (4), and Vehicle Technology Related Amendments (4). The CFATS related amendment that I discussed last week has not been marked ‘Made in Order’; I will discuss that in the commentary below.

Cybersecurity Related Amendments

Panetta (CA), Bacon (NE), Trone (MD), Wagner (MO), Rodgers (WA), Schneider (IL)	Bi-Partisan	Revised Creates a foreign military officer subject matter expert exchange program with key Middle East partners in areas such as artificial intelligence, military doctrine and spending, cyber resiliency, counterterrorism, and more.
Green (TN)	Republican	Mandates that the Department of Defense produce a report to Congress on the feasibility of furnishing the national guard of every state a cyber unit to ensure the state has the ability to quickly respond to cyber attacks.
Joyce (OH)	Republican	Revised Authorizes the “Project Spectrum” program within the Office of Small Business Programs of the Department of Defense to provide Department of Defense suppliers that are small or medium businesses, through an online platform, digital resources and services that increase awareness about cybersecurity risks and help such entities to comply with the cybersecurity requirements of the defense acquisition system.
Banks (IN)	Republican	Revised Requires the Secretary of Defense to provide a plan for the growth of the Hacking for Defense program.

Space Related Amendments

Gottheimer (NJ), Titus (NV), Moskowitz (FL)	Democrat	Revised Expresses support for joint U.S.-Israel cooperation in the space arena between NASA and the Israel Space Agency, including joint U.S. Air Force and the Israeli Air Force’s newly created Space Force in areas of research, development, test, and evaluation.
Himes (CT), Crawford (AR), Bergman (MI)	Bi-Partisan	Cislunar Space Domain Awareness capabilities and the need to ensure the safety of flight of civil and commercial missions in cislunar space. Directs the Chief of Space Operations to deliver a report on three things: requirements for cislunar, the department’s plan for researching and developing technologies for cislunar, and how the department coordinates with the Cislunar Technology Strategy Interagency Working Group regarding the progress made on the objectives laid out in the November 2022 National Cislunar Science and Technology Strategy.
Pettersen (CO), Crow (CO)	Democrat	Revised Expresses a Sense of Congress that the Space Force continue its commitment to accelerating the development of very low earth orbit (VLEO) space capabilities.
Donalds (FL)	Republican	Revised Directs the U.S. Space Force to submit a report pertaining to its current and future potential use of nuclear thermal propulsion space vehicles and nuclear electric propulsion space vehicles, and how these nuclear-powered space vehicles can bolster America's national security.

Vehicle Technology Related Amendments

Bergman (MI)	Republican	Revised Authorizes $10 million for Fuel Cell Multi-Modular Use (FC-MMU) utilizing hydrogen in FY25.
Buchanan (FL)	Republican	Revised Requires the Comptroller General of the United States to conduct a study to assess ways unmanned vehicles can reduce overall operating expenses and costs at the Department of Defense.
Ivey (MD)	Democrat	Revised Directs the GAO to study, and issue a report on, the potential threats to US interests posed by Iran, China, Russia, and other adversarial States through the antagonistic use of extraterrestrial satellites for combat, incapacitation of other satellites, cybersecurity intrusions, debilitation of critical infrastructure, and other aggressive purposes.
Walberg (MI), Dingell (MI)	Bi-Partisan	Requires the Secretary of Defense to conduct a study on the national security risks of highly automated vehicles associated with foreign adversary countries operating or testing in the United States.

Moving Forward

Since the Committee has not ‘published their rule resolution’ on their web site, it cannot technically be considered tomorrow. House rules are made to be waived, so that may not stop things from proceeding, but this is a short week for the House and it will certainly make it more difficult to finish up this bill before the House leaves Thursday night for a week campaigning and raising money in their home districts.

Commentary

While I have frequently noted that it looked like the only way that the CFATS reauthorization or reinstatement was going to bypass the Sen Paul (R,KY) logjam in the Senate was for it to be included as an amendment to a must pass bill, there has always been a problem with that path forward; it is not actually ‘allowed’ in the rules of the House or the Senate to have an amendment that is not related to the bill for which it is offered. That standard is frequently ignored, but looking at the list of amendments not ‘Made in Order’ it looks like the Committee tried to pay more attention to that requirement than frequently seen in the recent past.

There does remain on bill that would more closely meet that requirement for a CFATS amendment, the Homeland Security Spending bill. While spending bills are not technically allowed to include purely legislative language, that requirement is frequently ignored. More importantly, the CFATS program was originally authorized in a DHS Spending bill and periodically reauthorized in those bills until a stand alone bill was passed in 2014. The big problem with that is that a standalone DHS spending bill has not made it to the President’s desk in a long time. That means that we probably cannot expect to see a CFATS amendment in a spending bill until a consolidated spending bill is crafted, but that could be next spring. The CFATS program will have lost most of its people long before that.

Perhaps, we are going to have to rely on old fashioned politics to break through Sen Paul. This could simply require Sen Shumer to meet with Paul and determine what he wants in trade for not objecting to the consideration of HR 4470. In his original objection he wanted the Senate to take up an amendment related to duplicate regulations. Shumer did not want to reward Paul for his objection (or encourage others to take the same tack), so he did not agree. Perhaps it is time to reward Paul for his perseverance. CFATS really does need to be reinstated, and that would be a small price for the nation to pay.

House Passes HR 8070 – FY 2025 NDAA

This morning, the House concluded their consideration of HR 8070, the FY 2025 National Defense Authorization Act, passing two more groups of en block amendments and passing three other stand-alone amendments. Then the House passed the bill with a near party line (6 Democrats voting aye, and 3 Republicans voting nay) vote of 217 to 199 with 15 members not voting.

The voice votes on en bloc #4 (9:31 am EDT) and #5 (9:45 am EDT) approved a total of 115 amendments. Between all five en bloc amendments the 14 (4 cybersecurity, 5 space, 3 vehicle technology and 2 UAS) amendments that I briefly discussed on Wednesday were adopted by the House.

The bill now heads to the Senate for further consideration. The Senate Armed Forces Committee was working on their version of an NDAA bill this week. Once that language and report are passed, the Senate will (sooner or later) take up HR 8070 with the first amendment to be considered will be a substitute language amendment with language from the Senate version of the bill. When that most likely more moderate authorization bill is passed in the Senate it will be sent back to the House for consideration of the revised language. The House leadership would then be forced to consider whether they were willing to use Democratic votes to pass the Senate version or insist on a conference committee to resolve the differences between the two versions. The 14 amendments discussed above could all end up in a conference bill.

The conference version of the bill would still likely require opposition votes to pass, but that would be after the November election and that would be less of a problem for Speaker Johnson. Unless, of course, if Trump is elected President and the Republican gain control of the Senate and retain control of the House. Then all bets are off.

Rules Report for HR 8070 Published – FY 2025 NDAA

Since I published last night’s post on amendments to HR 8070, the FY 2025 National Defense Authorization Act, the House Rules Committee has published their Committee Print of their report on the rule (H Res 1287) for the consideration of HR 8070. This removes my concern about starting debate today on that bill. Below is the revised list of amendments of potential interest here with the amendment numbers that will be used in that debate. I have also added two amendments on uncrewed aircraft systems.

Cybersecurity Related Amendments

102. Panetta (CA), Bacon (NE), Trone (MD), Wagner (MO), Rodgers (WA), Schneider (IL): Creates a foreign military officer subject matter expert exchange program with key Middle East partners in areas such as artificial intelligence, military doctrine and spending, cyber resiliency, counterterrorism, and more. (10 minutes),

124. Green (TN): Mandates that the Department of Defense produce a report to Congress on the feasibility of furnishing the national guard of every state a cyber unit to ensure the state has the ability to quickly respond to cyber attacks. (10 minutes),

248. Joyce (OH): Authorizes the “Project Spectrum” program within the Office of Small Business Programs of the Department of Defense to provide Department of Defense suppliers that are small or medium businesses, through an online platform, digital resources and services that increase awareness about cybersecurity risks and help such entities to comply with the cybersecurity requirements of the defense acquisition system. (10 minutes), and

275. Banks (IN): Requires the Secretary of Defense to provide a plan for the growth of the Hacking for Defense program. (10 minutes).

Space Related Amendments

114. Gottheimer (NJ), Titus (NV), Moskowitz (FL): Expresses support for joint U.S.-Israel cooperation in the space arena between NASA and the Israel Space Agency, including joint U.S. Air Force and the Israeli Air Force’s newly created Space Force in areas of research, development, test, and evaluation. (10 minutes),

141. Himes (CT), Crawford (AR), Bergman (MI): Expresses the sense of Congress the importance of comprehensive cislunar Space Domain Awareness capabilities and the need to ensure the safety of flight of civil and commercial missions in cislunar space. Directs the Chief of Space Operations to deliver a report on three things: requirements for cislunar, the department’s plan for researching and developing technologies for cislunar, and how the department coordinates with the Cislunar Technology Strategy Interagency Working Group regarding the progress made on the objectives laid out in the November 2022 National Cislunar Science and Technology Strategy. (10 minutes),

262. Ivey (MD): Directs the GAO to study, and issue a report on, the potential threats to US interests posed by Iran, China, Russia, and other adversarial States through the antagonistic use of extraterrestrial satellites for combat, incapacitation of other satellites, cybersecurity intrusions, debilitation of critical infrastructure, and other aggressive purposes. (10 minutes),

274. Pettersen (CO), Crow (CO): Expresses a Sense of Congress that the Space Force continue its commitment to accelerating the development of very low earth orbit (VLEO) space capabilities. (10 minutes), and

280. Donalds (FL): Directs the U.S. Space Force to submit a report pertaining to its current and future potential use of nuclear thermal propulsion space vehicles and nuclear electric propulsion space vehicles, and how these nuclear-powered space vehicles can bolster America's national security. (10 minutes).

Vehicle Technology Related Amendments

239. Buchanan (FL): Requires the Comptroller General of the United States to conduct a study to assess ways unmanned vehicles can reduce overall operating expenses and costs at the Department of Defense. (10 minutes),

279. Walberg (MI), Dingell (MI): Requires the Secretary of Defense to conduct a study on the national security risks of highly automated vehicles associated with foreign adversary countries operating or testing in the United States. (10 minutes), and

344. Bergman (MI): Authorizes $10 million for Fuel Cell Multi-Modular Use (FC-MMU) utilizing hydrogen in FY25. (10 minutes).

UAS Related Amendments

278. Donalds (FL): Adds a Sense of Congress that Congress encourages the U.S. Armed Forces to utilize innovative technologies, such as artificial intelligence, quantum, advanced air mobility, and counter-uas, to ultimately defend the national security of the United States. (10 minutes), and

328. Gottheimer (NJ), Tenney (NY), Moskowitz (FL): Requires the Secretary of Defense to report on the status of U.S.-Israel cooperation on efforts to counter threats by Iran in the form of unmanned aerial systems (UAS), including loitering munitions, otherwise known as “suicide” and “kamikaze” drones. (10 minutes).

Review - Committee Hearings – Week of 6-9-24

This week with both the House and Senate in session, we have a moderately busy hearing schedule. In the House we have continued work of FY 2025 spending bills. The Senate Armed Services Committee will be holding a series of closed hearings this week on formulating the Senate version of the National Defense Authorization Act. In the House there will be hearings on a rule for HR 8070, the FY 2025 NDAA, Microsoft vulnerabilities and regulatory duplication.

Spending Bill Hearings

Spending Bills	House
ARD	Subcommittee
State	Full Committee
DOD, FinServ, Legislative	Full Committee

NDAA Rule - Today, the House Rules Committee will hold a hearing on “HR 8070 - Servicemember Quality of Life Improvement and National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025”.

Microsoft Vulnerabilities - On Thursday, the House Homeland Security Committee will hold a hearing on “A Cascade of Security Failures: Assessing Microsoft Corporation’s Cybersecurity Shortfalls and the Implications for Homeland Security”.

Regulatory Duplication - On Thursday, the Subcommittee on Government Operations and the Federal Workforce of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee will hold a hearing on “What We Have Here…is a Failure to Collaborate: Review of GAO’s Annual Duplication Report”.

 

For more information on these hearings, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/committee-hearings-week-of-6-9-24 - subscription required. This is the latest regular posting that I am moving to my Substack site.

House Considers HR 8070 – FY 2025 NDAA – 6-12-24

Today, the House began consideration of HR 8070, the FY 2025 National Defense Authorization Act. Debate on amendments ended today at 3:36 pm EDT with amendment #36. Debate will resume tomorrow.

Earlier in the debate (1:29 pm EDT), the House considered en bloc amendment #1 which included 76 less-controversial amendments between #2 and #117. The House approved the en bloc amendment by a voice vote. It included two of the fourteen amendments I discussed this morning:

102. Panetta (CA), Bacon (NE), Trone (MD), Wagner (MO), Rodgers (WA), Schneider (IL): Creates a foreign military officer subject matter expert exchange program with key Middle East partners in areas such as artificial intelligence, military doctrine and spending, cyber resiliency, counterterrorism, and more. (10 minutes), and

114. Gottheimer (NJ), Titus (NV), Moskowitz (FL): Expresses support for joint U.S.-Israel cooperation in the space arena between NASA and the Israel Space Agency, including joint U.S. Air Force and the Israeli Air Force’s newly created Space Force in areas of research, development, test, and evaluation. (10 minutes).

House Considers HR 8070 – FY 2025 NDAA – 6-13-24

Today, the House continued consideration of HR 8070, the FY 2025 National Defense Authorization Act. Debate on amendments ended today at 3:36 pm EDT with amendment #55. Debate will resume tomorrow.

Earlier in the debate (3:41 pm EDT), the House considered en bloc amendments #2 and #3 which included 123 less-controversial amendments between #4 and #234. The House approved the en bloc amendments by a voice votes. They included two more of the fourteen amendments I discussed Wednesday morning:

124. Green (TN): Mandates that the Department of Defense produce a report to Congress on the feasibility of furnishing the national guard of every state a cyber unit to ensure the state has the ability to quickly respond to cyber attacks. (10 minutes), and

141. Himes (CT), Crawford (AR), Bergman (MI): Expresses the sense of Congress the importance of comprehensive cislunar Space Domain Awareness capabilities and the need to ensure the safety of flight of civil and commercial missions in cislunar space. Directs the Chief of Space Operations to deliver a report on three things: requirements for cislunar, the department’s plan for researching and developing technologies for cislunar, and how the department coordinates with the Cislunar Technology Strategy Interagency Working Group regarding the progress made on the objectives laid out in the November 2022 National Cislunar Science and Technology Strategy. (10 minutes).

Bills Introduced – 4-18-24

Yesterday, with both the House and Senate in session, there were 76 bills introduced. One of those bills will receive additional attention in this blog:

HR 8070 To authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2025 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes. Rogers, Mike D. [Rep.-R-AL-3] 

Review - Committee Hearings – Week of 7-28-24

This week with just the Senate in session (the House leadership picked up their marbles and went home a week early) there is a fairly light hearing schedule with two markup hearings of interest.

Commerce Markup

The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee will hold a business meeting on Wednesday to consider 33 bills and some nominations (none of the nominations are of particular interest here). Of those bills, are of interest here:

S 3943, Accelerating Networking Cyberinfrastructure and Hardware for Oceanic Research (ANCHOR) Act, and

S 3959, Transportation Security Screening Modernization Act,

Appropriations Markup

The Senate Appropriations Committee will hold a business meeting on Thursday to complete the full committee markup of five spending bills:

• Energy and Water Development,

• Defense,

• Labor, Health, and Human Services,

• Homeland Security, and

• Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Acts

NDAA Action on the Floor

There is a remote chance that the Senate may start their consideration of the National Defense Authorization Act this week, though it is more likely that they will take up S 4638 (or the House version HR 8070) after they return in September.

InsideEPA.com is reporting that there is an industry effort being made to have the Senate take action on an amendment to the NDAA that would extend the currently expired CFATS program through October 1^st, 2026. The American Chemical Society is part of the coalition of 15 chemical organizations that sent a letter to Sen Schumer (D,NY) and Sen McConnel (R,KY). That letter references amendment SA 2502 that was submitted in the Senate on July 11^th, 2023, one of 670 amendments submitted to the NDAA on that day.

 

For more details about these hearings and the NDAA CFATS amendment, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/committee-hearings-week-of-7-28-24 - subscription required.

Committee Hearings – Week 5-20-24

This week, with both the House and Seante in session, there is a moderately heavy hearing schedule. The House is starting hearings on FY 2025 spending bills. The FY 2025 NDAA also gets a full committee hearing this week.

FY 2025 Spending Bills

	House
Mil Construction	Subcommittee
Legislative Branch	Subcommittee
Mil Construction	Full Committee

This is relatively early in the year to start marking up spending bills, but if there is any chance in getting any of these bills done before September 30^th, action is going to have to start now. Theoretically, these two are the least controversial bills. Probably the only matter of real contention between the House and Senate on these two bills will be the spending levels, with the House Republicans again poised to call for steep spending cuts (probably less steep on these two bills).

Commentary: It will be interesting to see if the House Republicans have the votes to pass a bill that will even come close to satisfying the fringe elements of the party. It is going to be a long summer.

FY 2025 NDAA

On Wednesday, the House Armed Forces Committee will hold their markup hearing for HR 8070, the Servicemember Quality of Life Improvement Act. This will also be the FY 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The hearing page provides links to the various subcommittee markups. Of interest here is the Subcommittee on Cyber, Information Technologies, and Innovation print. There are only two sections in that print that appears to be of specific interest here:

Section 221—Plan for Establishment of Secure Computing and Data Storage Environment for Testing of Artificial Intelligence Trained on Biological Data, and

Section 1511—Protective Measures for Mobile Devices within the Department of Defense