Legislative Branch Activity

Cybersecurity Legislation

The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee is expected to mark up a bipartisan cybersecurity bill drafted by Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and Ranking Member John Thune (R-SD) by the end of this month. The bill will be focused on defining industry standards for critical infrastructure and strengthening cybersecurity workforce training, education, and research and development programs. This is the first cybersecurity bill in the Senate that will be marked up this Congress, but we expect to see others from the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee this year as well.

This Week’s Hearings:

  • Wednesday, July 17: At 9:30 am, the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection and Security Technologies will hold a hearing titled “Evaluating Privacy, Security, and Fraud Concerns with Obamacare’s Information Sharing Apparatus.”
  • Thursday, July 18: At 10:00am, the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection and Security Technologies will hold a hearing titled “Oversight of Executive Order 13636 and Development of the Cybersecurity Framework.”
  • Thursday, July 18: At 10:00am, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce Manufacturing and Trade will hold a hearing titled “Reporting Data Breaches: Is Federal Legislation Needed to Protect Consumers?”

Executive Branch Activity

NIST Workshop

Last week, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) held its third workshop at the University of Southern California on the cybersecurity framework it was tasked with developing as part of the President’s Executive Order (EO) in February. NIST released a draft outline of the framework prior to the workshop and plans to complete the draft version of the framework by the October deadline outlined in the EO. The final NIST workshop will take place in Dallas, Texas in September.

Cybersecurity Incentive Proposals

As part of the EO, the Departments of Commerce, Homeland Security, and Treasury were required to provide the White House with recommendations on incentives to encourage industry to strengthen their cybersecurity measures and determine if legislative action is needed to implement these incentives. The Office of Management and Budget is currently reviewing these proposals and plans to publish its analysis and recommendations once the review is complete.

Department of Energy Public-Private Partnership

The U.S. Department of Energy announced the creation of a new initiative that will allow critical infrastructure owners and operators in the oil and gas sector to assess their cybersecurity capabilities in order to make investments that will improve their cybersecurity. The initiative will be a collaborative effort led by the Department of Energy and include officials from the White House, Department of Homeland Security, Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute, the Oil and Natural Gas Sector Coordinating Council, and representatives from the oil and gas sector.