Continued oversight of federal cybersecurity activities and the implementation of a physical security program for chemical storage facilities are among the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s major priorities for the year, according to an oversight plan released by committee Republicans last week.
The plan outlines a variety of areas on which the panel and its subcommittees will focus over the course of 2013, although Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) explained the document is not an exhaustive list. Instead, he said that it merely “sets forth some markers” on important policy issues.
The plan broadly notes that the committee will focus on “cutting government spending through the elimination of waste, fraud, and abuse” and ensuring that laws balance protecting the public interest with promoting economic growth. The document does not detail any specific priorities for drinking water oversight or the Safe Drinking Water Act, but it does pledge the committee to conduct “general oversight of the EPA,” as well as monitor the agency’s program management and implementation.
Among other areas of interest to the drinking water community, the plan says the committee will “exercise its jurisdiction over cybersecurity” and avoid “one-size-fits-all approaches that hinder the flexibility … to combat the rapidly evolving threats.” This is a veiled reference to ongoing efforts by the Obama Administration to develop new cybersecurity rules that could lead to new regulatory standards for critical infrastructure operators.
The Energy and Commerce Committee also intends to continue its oversight of the Department of Homeland Security’s Chemical Facilities Anti-Terrorism (CFATS) program. The oversight plan does not, however, announce any intent to eliminate the exemption of water utilities from CFATS or subject them to a similar regulatory framework.
The oversight plan gives a passing mention to climate change, but mainly in the context of examining EPA efforts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions through the Clean Air Act. Committee Democrats had pushed to add language promising to hold hearings on the potential impacts of climate change, but GOP leaders rejected the idea.