Committee Hearings – Week of 09-04-17

Yes, the House and Senate have actually returned to Washington; it must be September. Spending (including Harvey Relief) and debt limits are the big items that will have to be addressed before the end of the month. But, this week, in addition to the spending bill hearing this evening, there are two cybersecurity hearings scheduled and one cybersecurity bill on the floor of the House that may be of interest to readers of this blog.

Cybersecurity Hearings

The House Homeland Security Committee will hold a markup hearing on Thursday with four bills under consideration. The one of specific interest here is HR 3101, the Strengthening Cybersecurity Information Sharing and Coordination in Our Ports Act of 2017. No amendments to this bill are currently listed on the Committee web site.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection Subcommittee of the House Homeland Security Committee will be holding an information hearing on Thursday. It will address “Challenges of Recruiting and Retaining a Cybersecurity Workforce”. The witness list is not currently available.

On the Floor

As I mentioned earlier, there is one cybersecurity related bill scheduled to be considered by the House this week; HR 3388, the SELF DRIVE Act. Additional cybersecurity provisions found in this bill are addressed here, here and here. This bill contains some of the most comprehensive cybersecurity provisions that I have seen to date and may end up having far ranging indirect impacts outside of the automotive world. This will be considered Wednesday under the suspension of the rules provisions that limit debate and require a supermajority for passage.

The bulk of the time on the floor of the House this week will be consumed with the consideration of HR 3354, the Make America Secure and Prosperous Appropriations Act, 2018. The House is taking this up early to provide time to recover if it fails in either the House or Senate. There is still a reasonable chance that we are going to end up with a last minute continuing resolution to keep the government operating at the end of the month.