HR-1340 : Still Just a Bill

Interagency Cybersecurity Cooperation Act

This bill requires the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to establish the Interagency Communications Security Committee as an advisory committee to:

• review communications security reports from federal agencies and communications network providers (wireline or mobile telephone service, Internet access service, radio or television broadcasting, cable service, direct broadcast satellite service, or other communications services);
• recommend investigation by relevant agencies into any such report; and
• issue to Congress regular reports containing the results of any such investigation, the committee's findings following each communications security incident, and policy recommendations that may arise from each communications security incident.

Every three months, agencies must submit to the committee a report of each communications security incident compromising a telecommunications system that resulted in: (1) government-held or private information being viewed or extracted, or (2) outside programming on an agency computer or electronic device.

The bill requires communications networks to be treated as critical infrastructure and protected systems under the Homeland Security Act of 2002. The FCC is subject to the same requirements as the Department of Homeland Security concerning the protection of critical infrastructure information relating to communications networks that is voluntarily submitted to the FCC.