HR 8772 Introduced - FY 2025 Legislative Spending

Last month, Rep Valadao (R,CA) introduced HR 8772, FY 2025 legislative spending. The bill provides for spending to support operations of the Congress of the United States. The bill contains one cybersecurity provision, and the report of the House Appropriations Committee that accompanies the bill contains two cybersecurity discussions.

Cybersecurity Provision

Section 112 of the bill recognizes that the Congress will rely on federal agencies for efforts to deter, prevent, mitigate, or remediate cybersecurity risks. This sections requires any such assistance will include “all necessary steps to ensure the constitutional integrity of the separate branches of the government at all stages of providing the assistance”.

Cybersecurity Discussions

On page 4 of the report, the Committee discusses congressional requirements for legislative branch cyber and physical data security. The Committee notes that agencies are encouraged to prioritize compliance to ensure continuity of operations for the Legislative Branch.

On page 8 the Committee “commends the Sergeant at Arms for working with the Chief Administrative Officer to expand the Residential Security Program to include certain cybersecurity and privacy resources for Members of Congress to deter, prevent, mitigate, and remediate threats to their home networks”.

Moving Forward

The House Rules Committee is scheduled to meet this afternoon to formulate the rule for the consideration of the bill. Thirty-six amendments have been proposed to the Committee. None of them are of specific interest here. This bill will pass later this week, probably along partisan lines. The Senate version of the bill has yet to be crafted, but that is the language that will be considered in the Senate if/when this bill is taken up by that body.