Legislative Activity
Senate Cybersecurity Legislation
Although the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee has already completed its work on a cybersecurity bill this Congress, many stakeholders are waiting to see what the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee is planning for its cybersecurity legislation.
At a hearing last week, Chairman Tom Carper (D-DE) laid out the priority issues that he hopes to address in any cyber bill that comes out of the committee, including protection of critical infrastructure, information sharing, protection of the federal government’s networks, improvement of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) ability to recruit and retain qualified cybersecurity employees, and research and development. Chairman Carper also noted that he would like to address data breach disclosure legislation as well, but explained that this was outside his committee’s jurisdiction.
This Week’s Hearings:
- Wednesday, September 18: The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will hold a hearing to review and approve the nomination of Suzanne Spaulding to be the Under Secretary for National Protection and Program at DHS.
Executive Branch Activity
NIST Cybersecurity Framework Workshop
Last week, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) held its final workshop to discuss the Cybersecurity Framework which it was tasked with creating in President Obama’s Executive Order (EO). Participants at the workshop in Dallas, Texas reviewed and updated the discussion draft of the Framework shared prior to the event. Taking into consideration the feedback that was received from last week’s workshop, NIST plans to issue its draft Cybersecurity Framework in October, as required by the EO. NIST will seek public comments on the draft released next month before issuing its final version of the Cybersecurity Framework, which is due in February.
Patton Boggs will host a webinar to discuss these topics and other cybersecurity initiatives this Friday, September 20 at 2:00 pm. The webinar will feature NIST’s Senior Information Technology Policy Advisor Adam Sedgwick and DHS’s Deputy Director of the EO-Public Policy Directive Task Force Janette Manfra.