House Homeland Security panel advances seven bills, including CISA reauthorization, state and local cyber grants and pipeline security

The House Committee on Homeland Security advanced seven bills during a committee markup, reporting each to the House with a favorable recommendation after debate and a series of amendments and roll-call votes.

The most contentious discussion centered on reauthorizing the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015, which the committee considered as H.R. 5,079 (the Widespread Information Management for the Welfare of Infrastructure and Government Act, or WIMWIG). Chairman Garbarino framed the bill as essential to sustaining voluntary cyber-threat information sharing, saying, "The Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 changed the cybersecurity landscape forever and for the better." The committee adopted an amendment-in-the-nature-of-a-substitute and additional technical edits intended to strengthen privacy protections and clarify provisions related to artificial intelligence. The committee reported H.R. 5,079 as amended by voice and roll call; the clerk recorded 25 ayes, 0 nays.

The panel also advanced H.R. 5,078, the Protecting Information by Local Leaders for Agency Resilience (Pillar Act), to reauthorize the State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program. Sponsor Rep. Ogles said the bill stabilizes cost-share rules and extends authorization for 10 years, and warned many local governments lack resources to defend critical systems: "roughly 98% of municipalities operate at below the cyber poverty line," he said. Ranking Member Benny Thompson and other Democrats expressed concern about the committee's shortened vetting process but supported moving the bill forward; the roll call recorded 21 ayes and 1 nay.

Other measures the committee advanced included:

- H.R. 1,736 (Generative AI Terrorism Risk Assessment Act). Rep. Pfluger said the bill would "require…