November 24th - Current Congressional Activities

The House is in session on November 26th.

 Transition Update

Attached is an analysis from our consultant, Arnold Punaro. It is a comprehensive look, but key points he emphasizes are:

• We have a unified Republican government of the White House, Senate, and House, which has only occurred seven times since 1965. The big arrows that will likely categorize the major initiatives are: grow the economy; fix immigration; and take on China, economically and militarily (increase deterrence).
• Difference from previous transitions is the focus on government efficiency, effectiveness, and reform, as heard by prominent voices on the Hill. This includes the Pentagon.
• In those previous seven times that Republicans controlled all of government, defense spending and the deficit went up, and taxes and regulations went down. Modest increases in defense spending will likely occur while domestic discretionary spending will be considerably lower. 
• The over 7,000 government-wide executive branch political positions (including the close to 1,200 positions requiring nomination by the president and confirmation by the Senate) will be filled by the president, either following the normal process or by recess appointments, should that be available. 

Legislative Branch  

Election Update

It still looks like it will be a 53-47 Republican majority in the Senate, with one seat left to be called – Pennsylvania. The AP called the race for Republican Dave McCormick a while ago, but the race is subject to a recount because he finished less than half a percentage point ahead of sitting Democratic Sen. Bob Casey. [Update: Sen. Bob Casey has conceded]. The recount results will be posted Nov. 27. In the House the Republicans maintained control, but there are still five seats remaining to be called – three have Republicans in the lead, and two have Democrats in the lead, and it looks that the split will be 221-214.

Senator John Thune (R-SD) was elected to be majority leader in the Senate. Other leadership positions were John Barrasso (R-WY) as majority whip, Tom Cotton (R-AR) as conference chair, Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) as policy committee chair, and Tim Scott as National Republican Senatorial Committee Chair. Democrats have not yet elected their Senate leaders.

Republicans in the House selected Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to retain the gavel. The House will hold a floor vote on Jan. 3 to formally elect the Speaker. Additionally, the GOP selected Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) as majority leader, Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN) as majority whip, Rep. Richard Hudson (R-NC) as chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, Lisa McClain (R-MI) as conference chair, Kevin Hern (R-OK) as policy committee chair, and Erin Houchin (R-IN) as conference secretary. Democrats in the House have scheduled their leadership elections for Nov. 19.

Appropriations Updates

As we noted last week, GOP leaders were still up in the air about whether they would seek to pass a full-year omnibus before the end of the year or just a short-term continuing resolution (CR). After House Speaker Mike Johnson met with President-elect Trump this weekend, it looks like they will seek to pass a short-term CR into next year, allowing the incoming GOP trifecta to leave an imprint on government funding for this fiscal year. So expect a clean CR in the first few weeks of December. Current government funding runs out on December 20.

A disaster relief package may ride on the CR, and the White House submitted a comprehensive $98.6B package today.

NDAA Updates

The Senate and House Armed Services Committees continue to conference the NDAA, working final compromise language in reconciling the two chambers’ bills. Expect the bill will not be finalized nor made public until after Thanksgiving, with votes on the bill maybe as early as the first week of December.

Sens. Lankford and Sinema Introduce E-Verify Legislation

On Nov. 13, Senators James Lankford (R-OK) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) introduced legislation (S.5309) to require federal contractors and subcontractors to enroll in and maintain compliance with E-Verify. Bill text has not yet been made available. The Government Relations Team will continue to track this legislation and will provide updates as appropriate.

Upcoming Hearings of Interest

Nov. 19

House Homeland Security Committee Subcommittee on Transportation and Maritime Security. “Impacts on Emergency Authority Cybersecurity Regulations on the Transportation Sector.”

Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law. “Big Hacks and Big Tech: China’s Cybersecurity Threat.”

Nov. 20

House Veterans Affairs Committee Subcommittee on Technology Modernization. “VA Cybersecurity: Protecting Veterans Data from Evolving Threats.”

House Homeland Security Committee. “Worldwide Threats to the Homeland.”

Nov. 21

Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. “Threats to the Homeland.”

Executive Branch    

NIST Releases Special Publication for Comment

On Nov. 13, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released for comment a draft of Special Publication (SP) 800-172r3 (Revision 3), “Enhanced Security Requirements for Protecting Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI).” SP 800-172r3 provides recommended security requirements to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of CUI when in a nonfederal system or organization and is associated with a high value asset or critical program for the purpose of providing a defense-in-depth protection strategy against advanced persistent threats (APTs). The enhanced security requirements in NIST SP 800-172r3 would supplement the security requirements in NIST SP 800-171 and could be referenced in future federal contract vehicles. As you may recall, NIST SP 800-171 is a key set of standards that federal contractors must meet to protect CUI and part of the DoD’s Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) program.  Comments on the draft NIST SP-172r3 are due January 10, 2025.

White House Announces Skills-Based Hiring Actions for IT and Cybersecurity Jobs

On Nov. 13, the White House hosted the “Classroom to Career” Summit, welcoming 200 education and workforce leaders to the White House to highlight progress in expanding career pathways in various sectors, including in IT and cybersecurity. The White House made several announcements at the summit, including that the General Services Administration (GSA) intends to apply a skills-based hiring approach to an estimated $100 billion of federal agency task orders. The GSA intends to do this by eliminating unnecessary degree and experience requirements for IT cybersecurity jobs at the Master Contract level in its planned Polaris and Alliant 3 Government-wide Acquisition Contracts. The White House also announced that the Department of Energy (DoE) will be taking similar measures to change its multi-billion enterprise IT contract to remove degree requirements for cyber and IT positions. The change to the contract is expected to impact over 1,000 positions by December.

DHS Releases AI and Critical Infrastructure Framework

On Thursday, November 14, DHS released the "Roles and Responsibilities Framework for Artificial Intelligence in Critical Infrastructure." This Framework, developed by DHS’s AI Safety and Security Board, consists of a comprehensive set of guidelines aimed at ensuring the safe and secure use of AI across U.S. critical infrastructure. It outlines specific roles and recommended practices for cloud providers, AI developers, infrastructure owners and operators, civil society, and public sector entities. Each stakeholder is encouraged to adopt measures to mitigate AI-related vulnerabilities, including attacks using AI, threats to AI systems, and design flaws. Critical infrastructure owners and operators as specifically tasked with maintaining strong cybersecurity practices that account for AI-related risks. Further, the framework emphasizes secure-by-design principles, transparency, privacy, and collaboration among stakeholders to protect critical services like power, water, and digital networks. In a statement, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas highlighted the potential of AI to enhance infrastructure resilience while noting the importance of minimizing associated risks. This voluntary guidance complements the Administration’s broader AI safety efforts and promotes a unified approach to safeguard essential services from misuse or failure due to AI vulnerabilities. Note that we do not necessarily expect this guidance to be embraced by the Trump Administration when they enter office in January.

Personnel Updates:

On Nov. 15, DoD nominated Army Lieutenant General Chris Donahue for a fourth star and assignment as commanding general, U.S. Army Europe-Africa. Donahue is currently commander of the 18^th Airborne Corps.

On Nov. 8, U.S. Army Pacific’s Commander, Gen. Charles Flynn, retired, passing the command to Gen. Ronald Clark in a ceremony held at Fort Schaffer. 

On Nov. 18, NASA announced that Clayton P. Turner will serve as the associate administrator of the Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) at the agency’s headquarters. Turner has served as the acting associate administrator since July 2024. His appointment is effective immediately.