The House Homeland Security Committee took up a slew of bills this week, advancing five to the larger House’s consideration on cybersecurity, Chinese drones, approaches to weapons of mass destruction and support for first responders.
These bills included the Securing Open Source Software Act (H.R. 3286), the Unmanned Aerial Security Act (H.R. 1501), Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Extension Act (H.R. 3224), DHS Cybersecurity On-the-Job Training Program Act (H.R. 3208) and First Responder Access to Innovative Technologies Act (H.R. 3254). Somewhat unusually in the current polarized environment, these represented a mix of bipartisan bills.
“I am proud the Committee is moving these key efforts to strengthen various elements of our homeland security mission in a bipartisan manner,” U.S. Rep. Mark Green, MD (R-TN), chairman of the committee, said. “From mitigating the risk of sensitive data falling into the hands of adversarial nations like China to ensuring DHS has a clear, coordinated response to threats of weapons of mass destruction, our Members are taking a strategic and head-on approach to the glaring issues facing our homeland.”
Green introduced the Securing Open Source Software Act as a direct response to the Log4j vulnerability disclosure revealed in 2021. That vulnerability allowed remote code to be executed and information disclosure to be exploited by attackers. A government-wide response was credited with locking down the situation, but even now, risks remain for unpatched organizations. Green emphasized the incident as highlighting the potential risks posed by other open source software components as well.
Open source software is a critical component of the larger digital ecosystem, with roots back to the beginning of the Internet.
The other bills in question would prohibit the Secretary of Homeland Security from operating or procuring unmanned aircraft systems from certain, specific foreign nations, such as China, and extend authorization of the Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office of the Department of Homeland Security. Additionally, the DHS Cybersecurity On-the-Job Training Program called for exactly what it sounds like – the creation of an on the job training program on cybersecurity at the DHS. More generally, the First Responder Access to Innovative Technologies Act would also create a process to review applications for certain grants applying to the purchase of equipment or systems that do not meet or exceed any applicable national voluntary consensus standards.