Last week, Congresswoman Jacky Rosen (D-Nevada), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, released the following statement after introducing H.R. 3855, the Securing The Electric Grid to Protect Military Readiness Act of 2017.
This is a bipartisan bill introduced alongside Reps. Elise Stefanik (R-New York), a fellow member of the House Armed Services Committee, Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pennsylvania), a member of the House Homeland Security Committee’s Subcommittee on Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Protection, and Dan Lipinski (D-Illinois), ranking member of the House Science, Space, & Technology Committee’s Subcommittee on Research & Technology, which has jurisdiction over cyber security matters.
H.R. 3855 would require a report from the Departments of Defense, Energy, and Homeland Security, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on significant security risks to the national electric grid, the potential effect of such security risks on the readiness of the United States Armed Forces, and recommendations for mitigating those threats.
“We must take every step necessary to modernize our electric power grid and protect our military assets from malicious cyber-attacks,” said Rosen. “As a member of the House Armed Services Committee, I am committed to seeing that our Armed Forces have every advantage and are well-equipped to come to our nation’s defense. I’m proud to work across the aisle to introduce this legislation that will help ensure America’s military readiness by requiring top officials to identify and report any vulnerabilities that might jeopardize our core defense missions.”
“As the Chair of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities, I’m pleased to introduce this legislation with Rep. Rosen to better protect our nation against attacks on our critical infrastructure,” said Rep. Stefanik. “In this day and age, with adversaries around the globe developing their cyber capabilities, we must redouble our efforts to protect against these sorts of attacks. This legislation will help Congress and our military gain a better understanding of the vulnerabilities and dependencies of these systems in order to better protect our homeland, and I encourage my colleagues to support this effort.”
“As a member of the Homeland Security Committee’s Subcommittee on Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Protection I’m working to defend America’s domestic networks and establish a comprehensive assessment of the current cyber threat environment to help guide the Department of Homeland Security’s governmental and civilian cyber defense mission. Whether it is state actors from North Korea to Russia, hacktivists or terror groups, cyber-security – especially when it comes to infrastructure like our electric grid – is a complex and serious national and economic security issue that our country will continue face over the decades to come,” said Rep. Fitzpatrick. “This bipartisan legislation is a crucial step toward ensuring we are doing everything we can to keep our nation and its people safe.”
“This bill will help protect our electric grid from attacks by America’s enemies who are trying to take down our defenses,” said Rep. Lipinski.“It will also help us harden our entire electric grid against cyberattacks, protecting Americans and American businesses from attempts by online adversaries to disrupt our lives.”
H.R. 3855 is a bipartisan bill which, if enacted, would require the Secretary of Defense, in coordination with the Director of National Intelligence, and the Secretaries of Energy and Homeland Security, to submit to Congress a report detailing significant security risks to defense critical electric infrastructure posed by malicious cyber-enabled activities.
View text of the bill here.
