Passed the House of Representatives February 4, 2010. NIST and DoD have long been active, directly or indirectly, in development of Internet standards. If this advances, it will be interesting to see if/how it impacts the IETF process.
Infoweek reported that:
A source familiar with HR 4061 and House procedures said that for it to make it to the Senate, the Homeland Security Committee and other House committees that deal with issues of cybersecurity would likely have to pass their own bills taking up similar issues. Those would then be joined with HR 4061, and that package then could be joined with Senate Bill 773 for approval in the Senate.
You'll remember S.773, the Rockefeller-Snow bill which proposed a Presidential appointed panel oversee any NTIA decision pertaining to IANA contract renewal, as well as required development of a strategy to implement DNSSEC in “information systems or networks designated by the President, or the President’s designee, as
critical infrastructure information systems or networks.” The former, a central issue in Internet governance, is certainly still in play with the current contract expiring in 2011. The later, as we stated earlier, was effectively accomplished by NTIA's inquiry and subsequent decision to sign the root.
David Clark (MIT) revealed the U.S. Government has encouraged that future standards NOT descend from ISOC & IETF DNA.
They have been there, done that and have the IETF T-Shirts.
By the way, it is also against U.S. Federal Laws for U.S. Government employees to develop Telecommunication Protocols for obvious reasons. NIST seems to disregard that on a regular basis and the major telcos have not apparently expressed concern. This could be another sign of
the times with people turning everything over to
the 1984 Obamatron.
It also creates cybersecurity scholarship programs for college students and research centers, and asks NIST to boost development of identity management systems used to control access to buildings, computer networks, and data.