On February 26, Director of Intergovernmental Affairs Dominic Butchko testified before the Environment and Transportation Committee in support of HB 1062 – Department of the Environment – Community Water and Sewerage Systems – Cybersecurity Planning and Assessments with amendments.
This bill seeks to strengthen cybersecurity protections for public water and wastewater systems by requiring a Zero-Trust security model, annual third-party cybersecurity assessments, and certification of compliance with cybersecurity standards.
Compliance with HB 1062 would place an untenable fiscal burden on counties already struggling with workforce shortages and hiring freezes, making it extremely difficult to allocate the necessary resources for additional cybersecurity staff and administration.
Counties take cybersecurity seriously and follow established frameworks such as the NIST Cybersecurity Framework and the Criminal Justice Information Systems (CJIS) Security Policy. However, HB 1062 would require substantial upgrades to county IT infrastructure, including costly network restructuring, additional licensing, firewall reconfiguration, and ongoing maintenance. Many county IT directors acknowledge Zero-Trust as a long-term goal, but the transition requires significant investment.
HB 1062’s cross-file, SB 871, was heard on February 27 in the Senate Education, Energy, and the Environment Committee. Dominic Butchko testified in support of this bill with amendments.
SB 871 was heard in the opposite chamber, the Environment and Transportation Committee, on March 26. MACo submitted a letter of information on this bill.
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