Committee Hearings – Week of 12-15-25
This week, with both the House and Senate preparing to close out this year’s session, there is a relatively light hearing schedule. In the House we have one markup hearing of potential interest, an advanced cybersecurity hearing, and a biosecurity hearing. The Senate will hold an FCC oversight hearing that may include items of interest.
Markup Hearings
On Tuesday the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology of the House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a business meeting where seven bills will be considered. There is one bill of potential interest; a not-yet-introduced bill entitled “Mystic Alert Act”. The text of the bill is available. It addresses the use of satellite communications (Starlink for instance) to broadcast emergency alerts. Specifically, it would require the FCC to initiate a rulemaking to address “relevant technical standards, protocols, procedures, interoperability requirements, and other technical requirements” which should (IMO) include cybersecurity requirements.
Cybersecurity
On Wednesday two subcommittees of the House Homeland Security Committee will hold a joint hearing on “The Quantum, AI, and Cloud Landscape: Examining Opportunities, Vulnerabilities, and the Future of Cybersecurity”. No witness list is currently available.
All three of these advanced technologies have been touted as having the potential to address ever more complex cybersecurity issues. What has not been discussed in any detail (except in cloud operations) has been the new cybersecurity threats that will inevitably come with these opportunities. Any one that fails to understand the fact that what humans can devise, humans can subvert are going to find themselves further behind security-exploit battle.
Biosecurity
On Wednesday the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on “Examining Biosecurity at the Intersection of AI and Biology”. No witness list is currently available. While not exactly the same, biosecurity will have many elements in common with chemical security since many of the physical processes are the same.
The use of AI technology in support of product and process design is going to add more security issues for both the bioprocess and chemical process industries. It has the potential to make weapon development more accessible to various actors of concern. It also would make it easier for less experienced manufacturers to get into the production of materials without fully comprehending the process safety issues involved.
FCC Oversight
On Wednesday the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee will hold an oversight hearing on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Three Commissioners will be the sole witnesses. While the FCC is not a primary interest in this blog, they have been increasingly touching on communications cybersecurity and space geek issues. I suspect that the focus of this hearing will be areas related to the Commission’s conflicts with the Administration, but questions could arise on the areas mentioned above.
On the Floor
The Senate is going to be busy this week with votes of interest here. It includes final cloture votes on the House amendments to S 1071, the FY 2026 NDAA and the nomination of Jared Isaacman to be Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Those votes should be followed by final votes with both expected to receive bipartisan support.