Subcommittee Clears Two DHS Cybersecurity Bills for House Homeland Security Committee
The House Cybersecurity Subcommittee voted Wednesday to send two cybersecurity bills to the full Homeland Security Committee. The subcommittee approved the bills -- the Critical Infrastructure Research and Development Advancement Act (HR-2952) and the Homeland Security Cybersecurity Boots-on-the-Ground Act (HR-3107) -- on a unanimous voice vote with amendments. Both bills have bipartisan support, said subcommittee Chairman Patrick Meehan, R-Pa.
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HR-2952, sponsored by Meehan, would require the Department of Homeland Security to develop a strategic plan for the overall direction of the federal government’s cybersecurity research and development efforts. The bill would also require DHS to submit a report on its encouragement of public-private partnerships through the promotion of consortiums and establish a technology “clearinghouse” (http://bit.ly/196HRDj). DHS is tasked with implementing many parts of President Barack Obama’s cybersecurity executive order (CD Feb 14 p1). The bill would “streamline current barriers within DHS” and “assist the department in its mission to protect the homeland by evolving with the threat,” Meehan said at the markup. “Since American infrastructure is 90 percent owned and operated by the private sector, a new paradigm is needed to advance the research and development of critical infrastructure security technologies."
Amendments to HR-2952 offered by Meehan and ranking member Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., passed on voice votes. Meehan’s amendment revised the language in some parts of the bill, including changing references to a DHS-led “study” to become a DHS-led “report.” Clarke’s amendment would require the DHS strategic plan to include a “description of progress made with respect to each critical infrastructure security risk, associated security technology gap, and critical infrastructure technology need” included in the plan.
Rep. Bill Keating, D-Mass., agreed to withdraw an amendment that would have required DHS to submit a third report, which would have dealt with the identification of cybersecurity risk to the nuclear reactors, materials and waste sector. Meehan said both parties shared Keating’s concerns about the cyber risks the nuclear sector faces, but the amendment would be better suited to a bill that “more directly addresses the cybersecurity threat."
HR-3107, which Clarke introduced Tuesday, would require DHS to do further assessments of the cybersecurity workforce, establish cybersecurity occupation classifications and develop a strategic plan to address identified gaps in the cybersecurity workforce (http://1.usa.gov/189F8KV). Clarke said many of DHS’s top cybersecurity positions “are filled by non-permanent contractors and DHS reports having difficulty competing with other executive branch agencies and the private sector for talent.” Provisions in the bill requiring DHS to assess its workforce’s cybersecurity readiness would address that workforce crisis, which “can be blamed, at least in part, for creating conditions that allowed Edward Snowden and, now, Aaron Alexis to access federal information and sites.” Police believe Alexis was responsible for a series of shootings Monday at the Washington Navy Yard that resulted in the deaths of 12 people. Alexis also died as a result of the incident.
A set of two amendments to HR-3107 offered by Meehan passed on a voice vote. The amendments would require DHS’s cybersecurity workforce strategy to include a five-year implementation plan and would require a Government Accountability Office study of DHS’s progress in implementing its cybersecurity workforce strategy. Clarke agreed that Meehan’s proposed amendments “certainly will strengthen” the bill.