Rep. McCaul, Michael T. [R-TX-10] has introduced H.R.4651 – Digital Security Commission Act of 2016, full text here, a proposal to form the National Commission on Security and Technology Challenges.
From the proposal:
(2) To submit to Congress a report, which shall include, at a minimum, each of the following:
(A) An assessment of the issue of multiple security interests in the digital world, including public safety, privacy, national security, and communications and data protection, both now and throughout the next 10 years.
(B) A qualitative and quantitative assessment of—
(i) the economic and commercial value of cryptography and digital security and communications technology to the economy of the United States;
(ii) the benefits of cryptography and digital security and communications technology to national security and crime prevention;
(iii) the role of cryptography and digital security and communications technology in protecting the privacy and civil liberties of the people of the United States;
(iv) the effects of the use of cryptography and other digital security and communications technology on Federal, State, and local criminal investigations and counterterrorism enterprises;
(v) the costs of weakening cryptography and digital security and communications technology standards; and
(vi) international laws, standards, and practices regarding legal access to communications and data protected by cryptography and digital security and communications technology, and the potential effect the development of disparate, and potentially conflicting, laws, standards, and practices might have.
(C) Recommendations for policy and practice, including, if the Commission determines appropriate, recommendations for legislative changes, regarding—
(i) methods to be used to allow the United States Government and civil society to take advantage of the benefits of digital security and communications technology while at the same time ensuring that the danger posed by the abuse of digital security and communications technology by terrorists and criminals is sufficiently mitigated;
(ii) the tools, training, and resources that could be used by law enforcement and national security agencies to adapt to the new realities of the digital landscape;
(iii) approaches to cooperation between the Government and the private sector to make it difficult for terrorists to use digital security and communications technology to mobilize, facilitate, and operationalize attacks;
(iv) any revisions to the law applicable to wiretaps and warrants for digital data content necessary to better correspond with present and future innovations in communications and data security, while preserving privacy and market competitiveness;
(v) proposed changes to the procedures for obtaining and executing warrants to make such procedures more efficient and cost-effective for the Government, technology companies, and telecommunications and broadband service providers; and
(vi) any steps the United States could take to lead the development of international standards for requesting and obtaining digital evidence for criminal investigations and prosecutions from a foreign, sovereign State, including reforming the mutual legal assistance treaty process, while protecting civil liberties and due process.
Excuse the legalese but clearly an effort that could provide a factual as opposed to fantasy basis for further on digital security. No one can guarantee a sensible result but without a factual basis, any legislation is certainly going to be wrong.
For your convenience and possible employment/volunteering, here are the co-sponsors of this bill, with hyperlinks to their congressional homepages:
- Mr. Bishop (8th Michigan)
- Mrs. Comstock (10th Virginia)
- Mr. Costello (6th Pennsylvania)
- Ms. DelBene (1st Washington)
- Mr. Donovan (11th New York)
- Mr. Farenthold (27th Texas)
- Mr. Hurd of Texas (23rd Texas)
- Mr. Langevin (2nd Rhode Island)
- Mr. Ted Lieu of California (33rd California)
- Mr. McCaul (10th Texas)
- Mr. McNerney (9th California)
- Mr. Meehan (7th Pennsylvania)
- Mr. Reichert (8th Washington)
- Miss Rice of New York (4th New York)
- Mr. Swalwell (15th California)
- Mrs. Mimi Walters (45th California)
Now would be a good time to pitch yourself for involvement in this possible commission.
Pay attention to Section 8 of the bill:
SEC. 8. Staff.
(a)Appointment.—The chairman and vice chairman shall jointly appoint and fix the compensation of an executive director and of and such other personnel as may be necessary to enable the Commission to carry out its functions under this Act.
(b)Security clearances.—The appropriate Federal agencies or departments shall cooperate with the Commission in expeditiously providing appropriate security clearances to Commission staff, as may be requested, to the extent possible pursuant to existing procedures and requirements, except that no person shall be provided with access to classified information without the appropriate security clearances.
(c)Detailees.—Any Federal Government employee may be detailed to the Commission on a reimbursable basis, and such detailee shall retain without interruption the rights, status, and privileges of his or her regular employment.
(d)Expert and consultant services.—The Commission is authorized to procure the services of experts and consultants in accordance with section 3109 of title 5, United States Code, but at rates not to exceed the daily rate paid a person occupying a position level IV of the Executive Schedule under section 5315 of title 5, United States Code.
(e)Volunteer services.—Notwithstanding section 1342 of title 31, United States Code, the Commission may accept and use voluntary and uncompensated services as the Commission determines necessary.
I can sense you wondering what:
the daily rate paid a person occupying a position level IV of the Executive Schedule under section 5315 of title 5, United States Code
means, in practical terms.
I was tempted to point you to: 5 U.S. Code § 5315 – Positions at level IV, but that would be cruel and uninformative. 😉
I did track down the Executive Schedule, which lists position level IV:
Annual: $160,300 or about $80.15/hr. and for an 8-hour day, $641.20.
If you do volunteer or get a paying gig, please remember that omission and/or manipulation of subject identity properties can render otherwise open data opaque.
I don’t know of any primes are making money off of topic maps currently so it isn’t likely to gain traction with current primes. On the other hand, new primes can and do occur. Not often but it happens.
PS: If the extra links to contacts, content, etc. are helpful, please let me know. I started off reading the link poor RSA 2016: McCaul calls backdoors ineffective, pushes for tech panel to solve security issues. Little more than debris on your information horizon.