The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Kentucky (Mr. Guthrie) and the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Castor)
each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Kentucky.

                             General Leave

  Mr. GUTHRIE. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks on the
legislation and to include extraneous material on H.R. 7266.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Kentucky?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. GUTHRIE. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
  I rise in support of H.R. 7266, the Rural and Municipal Utility
Cybersecurity Act, sponsored by Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks
from Iowa's First Congressional District.
  Throughout the 119th Congress, the Energy and Commerce Committee has
held several hearings examining the state of our Nation's energy system
and the persistent threats facing critical infrastructure. We heard
directly from industry experts and administration officials about the
ability of adversarial nations to exploit vulnerabilities in our energy
infrastructure.
  We know that rising energy demands and a growing reliance on
intricate networks of energy delivery systems could widen attack
surfaces and opportunities to cause harm and sow chaos in the daily
lives of hardworking Americans.
  These threats are uniquely concerning for rural communities and small
utility operators that do not have the same resources as their
investor-owned counterparts. These rural cooperatives and municipal
utilities are economic drivers for small towns and remote areas of our
country to ensure they can participate in the 21st century economy.
  H.R. 7266 reauthorizes the Rural and Municipal Utility Advanced
Cybersecurity Grant and Technical Assistance Program for 5 years to
equip small utilities with the resources necessary to secure their
systems and keep the lights on for their communities.
  Importantly, the RMUC Act streamlines burdensome grant application
practices at the Department of Energy to reduce unnecessary regulatory
bureaucracy. By simplifying the funding process, we can get dollars
from the agency into the hands of cybersecurity professionals in a way
that meets the urgency needed to address our system needs.
  In addition, this program will leverage the expertise of the
Department of Energy by providing targeted technical assistance to
cybersecurity operators to enhance threat visibility and implement
security protections.
  Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bipartisan
legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.
  Ms. CASTOR of Florida. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I
may consume.
  H.R. 7266, the Rural and Municipal Utility Cybersecurity Act,
sponsored by the gentlewoman from Virginia (Ms. McClellan) and the
gentlewoman from Iowa (Mrs. Miller-Meeks), reauthorizes a critical
program from the bipartisan infrastructure law. This initiative is
designed to aid municipal utilities, rural electric cooperatives, and
small investor-owned utilities.
  The reason this is important is that the cyber threats to our
Nation's power grid are growing every day, from sophisticated
cyberattacks from nation-state actors to AI-enhanced cyberattacks from
single criminals. The offensive capabilities of people who would attack
our power grid are growing.