Bills Introduced – 9-2-25
Yesterday, with both the House and Senate back in Washington well rested and newly funded by their month ‘working in their districts’, there were 39 bills introduced. Two of those bills may receive additional coverage in this blog”
HR 5078 To amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to reauthorize the State and local cybersecurity grant program of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency of the Department of Homeland Security, and for other purposes. Ogles, Andrew [Rep.-R-TN-5]
HR 5086 To require the Secretary of Defense to establish and carry out a program to enable the rapid development, testing, and scalable manufacture of small unmanned aircraft systems, and for other purposes. Harrigan, Pat [Rep.-R-NC-10]
Cybersecurity
I can find no bills in the 118th Congress that would appear to be similar to HR 5078. I will be watching this bill for specific language and definitions that would specifically include governmental operational control systems within the scope of the grant program.
Military UAS
I can find no bills in the 118th Congress that would appear to be similar to HR 5086. I will be watching this bill for language and definitions that would specifically require the proposed program to include cybersecurity requirements for the command and control systems of the developed drones.
MIP
I would also like to mention in passing, with no additional coverage planned in this blog, two bills:
HR 5080 To redesignate the Department of Defense the Department of War. Steube, W. Gregory [Rep.-R-FL-17]
S 2685 A bill to redesignate the Department of Defense the Department of War. Lee, Mike [Sen.-R-UT]
These would appear to be companion bills (bills introduced with the same language in both houses of Congress to speed the committee processing) to fulfill the President’s announced desire to see such a name change. Typically, such titular changes have little practical effect, but this change is apparently an attempt to convince our enemies (a frequently changing group of nations under this Administration) of our willingness to do them harm. Apparently, this attempt to bring back a historic designation for what is now the Department of the Army (the Navy Department handled the Navy and Marines, the Air Force was included in the War Department, and there was no Space Force) would incorporate all of the Department of Defense in the new War Department. Pandering to the believers in a perfect American Golden Age, this name change would do little to change the efficacy of the fighting force, but would require an inordinate amount of money spent on a rebranding effort.
Of course, if this is more than just a rebranding, maybe including a rationalization of the organization of the military, this might just be a different story. But such a realignment is going to take a lot more study than a presidential whim and a simple name change. If this bill were to initiate a study about the reorganization of the military establishment, I would be more impressed with the intent. But even a high-level study of DOD/DOW reorganization would lead to much more political discussion than a single bill would allow for. Too many people, in and out of the government have too much to lose in any real efficiency-driven redesign of the US Military. And this Administration is not interested in efficiency, just presidential control.