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Late last week, APGA, along with other trade associations, sent a letter to Senators Gary Peters and Rob Portman, the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. APGA and the others asked the Senate not to include an amendment to defense legislation that would provide the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) through the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) with the authority to designate individual critical infrastructure businesses as Systemically Important Entities (SIE).

The trade associations stated that establishing an SIE designation does not distinguish itself from other existing requirements, which could be redundant. For example, the recently released Transportation Security Administration Security Directive should be complete to appropriately design the SIE authorities, ensuring no duplication. Any future cybersecurity effort would be an ineffective use of industry and government resources if there is not appropriate coordination with existing programs. APGA, with the others, expressed this proposal would benefit from having hearings and debate through the regular order process in Congress. It would be exposed to scrutiny that could provide legislative improvements and remove any redundancies. All in the natural gas industry remain committed to mitigating cybersecurity threats but the SIE proposal should not be included in this year’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

To see the letter, click here.

For questions on this article, please contact Stuart Saulters of APGA staff by phone at 202-544-1334 or by email at ssaulters@apga.org.