{"id":200735,"date":"2026-03-30T15:21:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T19:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/30\/buy-america-mitigates-cybersecurity-threats-to-americas-water-infrastructure\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T19:20:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T23:20:22","slug":"buy-america-mitigates-cybersecurity-threats-to-americas-water-infrastructure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/30\/buy-america-mitigates-cybersecurity-threats-to-americas-water-infrastructure\/","title":{"rendered":"Buy America Mitigates Cybersecurity Threats to America\u2019s\u00a0Water Infrastructure\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Buy America Mitigates Cybersecurity Threats to America\u2019s\u00a0Water Infrastructure\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.americanmanufacturing.org\/blog\/buy-america-mitigates-cybersecurity-threats-to-americas-water-infrastructure\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-03-30 15:21:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.americanmanufacturing.org<\/a><\/p>\n

Author: <\/a><\/p>\n

Using an unordered list, summarize the following article with between 4 and 8 key points. <\/p>\n

Buy America Build America creates valuable U.S. jobs and strengthens domestic manufacturing, but the policy also has knock-on benefits well beyond economic stimulus.<\/p>\n

\u201cAccessible and reliable water and wastewater services are essential to protect public health and provide fundamental services to our constituents.\u00a0These services can also be a foundational basis for a strong economy and a strong America.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

That\u2019s\u00a0what Chair Shelley\u00a0Moore\u00a0Capito (R-W. Va) said in her opening statement\u00a0during\u00a0the\u00a0U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works\u00a0hearing\u00a0she chaired\u00a0last month.\u00a0And\u00a0she\u2019s\u00a0not wrong:\u00a0Reliable water and wastewater services are as close to a definitive public\u00a0necessity as\u00a0you\u2019re\u00a0likely to get.\u00a0And their importance explains why\u00a0they\u2019re\u00a0persistently the target of foreign cyberattacks;\u00a0it was, in fact, the subject of the hearing.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Capito and others on the committee, including\u00a0ranking member Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.),\u00a0made\u00a0note\u00a0of\u00a0that\u00a0persistence, and\u00a0witnesses\u00a0urged lawmakers to\u00a0fund\u00a0any mandates for cybersecurity improvements. One witness, Scott Dewhirst of Fairfax Water in Virginia,\u00a0pointed out that while\u00a0Congress has authorized programs that extend grants for cybersecurity enhancements, they\u00a0aren\u2019t\u00a0well-funded.\u00a0And\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0all optional, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile guidance and tools provided by\u00a0[the\u00a0Environmental Protection Agency]\u00a0and\u00a0[the\u00a0Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency]\u00a0are valuable, there are currently no statutory\u00a0federal\u00a0cybersecurity requirements for water systems, making these best\u00a0practices optional and leaving less resourced utilities wholly\u00a0unprepared for a cyber incident,\u201d Dewhirst said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0So\u00a0what works in its place?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Improved cybersecurity may be a knock-on effect of\u00a0domestic procurement preferences \u2013 better known as Buy America rules. That was the observation made\u00a0in another hearing a\u00a0few\u00a0weeks\u00a0later\u00a0in a\u00a0House\u00a0Energy & Commerce subcommittee\u00a0hearing\u00a0that\u00a0examined\u00a0challenges facing\u00a0public water utilities.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0not\u00a0easy to run\u00a0such a service\u00a0with limited funds, (important) regulatory requirements,\u00a0and\u00a0the real threat of cyberattacks.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

About halfway through\u00a0the hearing, Subcommittee\u00a0Chairman\u00a0Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Ala.)\u00a0raised the question directly to\u00a0Eric Hill,\u00a0the general\u00a0manager\u00a0of the\u00a0Russellville Water & Sewer Board\u00a0in\u00a0Russellville, Ala. Hill was\u00a0appearing\u00a0before the committee\u00a0on behalf of the National Rural Water Association.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the issue of cybersecurity risk,\u00a0do you think the Build America Buy America\u00a0(BABA)\u00a0requirements are\u00a0an appropriate mechanism\u00a0to ensure the critical components are sourced from American companies, not from adversaries like China?\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a0part of my concern\u00a0is:\u00a0them\u00a0embedding\u00a0the ability to interfere with their water systems,\u201d asked Palmer.\u00a0\u201cIs that a concern for the rural systems?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hill responded:\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a big concern for us. We had a\u00a0telemetry system, which could be intercepted, and it was a proprietary system.\u00a0So\u00a0we reached out with our\u00a0[technical assistance]\u00a0providers from Alabama World Water Association,\u00a0and we got on the same page with them. And we bid the project out with\u00a0SRF funds,\u00a0and we switched over with those SRF funds and installed a\u00a0[supervisory control and data acquisition\u00a0system].\u00a0It has\u00a0the\u00a0VPN. It is encrypted. It is\u00a0BABA\u00a0compliant. And that was our biggest\u00a0concerns\u00a0with something like that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The idea that Palmer was getting at \u2013 and\u00a0that Hill confirmed in his answer \u2013 is that\u00a0procuring\u00a0electronic equipment\u00a0from domestic sources limits cybersecurity\u00a0threats.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0the same reason\u00a0there\u2019s\u00a0a rule banning\u00a0Chinese software in connected automobiles:\u00a0The software\u00a0itself is the vector for an attack, and imported software\u00a0is less secure than that developed outside of the purview of U.S. law and regulation.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Buy America has\u00a0many\u00a0more obvious and direct benefits\u00a0to it. By giving American\u00a0manufacturers\u00a0the first shot at\u00a0federally backed\u00a0infrastructure projects,\u00a0U.S.\u00a0workers\u00a0benefit\u00a0from public spending.\u00a0However,\u00a0improved cybersecurity in\u00a0our public\u00a0water\u00a0systems is an unquestionably positive and important\u00a0knock-on\u00a0effect.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Watch the full House Energy & Commerce hearing below. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Buy America Mitigates Cybersecurity Threats to America\u2019s\u00a0Water Infrastructure\u00a0 https:\/\/www.americanmanufacturing.org\/blog\/buy-america-mitigates-cybersecurity-threats-to-americas-water-infrastructure\/ Publish Date: 2026-03-30 15:21:00 Source Domain:…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":200736,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.americanmanufacturing.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/House-Energy-Commerce-Hearing-Hill.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[24],"class_list":["post-200735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cybersecurity","tag-cybersecurity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200735"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200735"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":200737,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200735\/revisions\/200737"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}