Federal Agencies Must Harmonize Cyber Rules: New Committee Aims to End Overlapping Regulations by 2026

The Streamlining Federal Cybersecurity Regulations Act of 2025 is trying to fix a problem that costs businesses massive amounts of time and money: overlapping and often contradictory federal cybersecurity rules. If you’re a business owner—whether you run a local bank or a specialized manufacturing plant—you often have to comply with two, three, or even more different agencies telling you slightly different things about how to secure your network. This bill’s main goal is to create a single, unified baseline set of cybersecurity requirements across the entire federal government.

The Committee That Reads the Fine Print

This law sets up a new group called the Harmonization Committee, chaired by the National Cyber Director. The Committee’s job is straightforward: develop a single regulatory framework within one year of the law passing. This framework must include a common set of baseline security requirements that every regulated entity can follow. Think of it like finally getting all the different federal agencies—from those regulating finance to those regulating energy—to agree on a minimum standard for things like password strength, basic network monitoring, and patch management (Section 3(e)).

The most important concept here is Reciprocity. If Agency A audits a company and confirms they met a certain cybersecurity rule, Agency B should accept that finding instead of forcing the company through the exact same check again (Section 2). For any company regulated by multiple bodies—say, a tech firm that handles both financial data and healthcare information—this could be a massive reduction in compliance headaches and audit costs. It’s essentially the government saying, “We trust each other’s homework.”

Testing the Waters with Waivers

To make sure this new framework actually works, the Committee must launch a Pilot Program within 90 days of publishing the new rules. They will select three to five regulatory agencies to test the new framework on three to six existing cybersecurity requirements (Section 3(f)). This is where things get interesting for the companies involved. If a regulated entity volunteers to participate in the pilot, the regulatory agency can issue a waiver for the existing, conflicting requirements. This means the company only has to follow the new, harmonized rules for the duration of the pilot. This temporary waiver system is the only exception the bill makes to the general rule that this Act doesn't grant new authority to agencies (Section 5).

However, this pilot program is strictly voluntary and has a hard sunset date of seven years. While it offers a real-world test and temporary relief for participants, it also means that the agencies and companies involved are essentially running a seven-year experiment with their compliance systems. If the pilot fails or the framework isn't adopted, those companies would revert back to the old rules.

The Catch: Slowing Down New Rules

While the goal of streamlining is great, the process introduces a potential friction point. Before any regulatory agency—even an independent one—can propose or change a cybersecurity rule, they must now consult with the Harmonization Committee (Section 3(g)). The Committee then issues an advisory report detailing how well the proposed rule aligns with the new framework. This mandatory consultation process could significantly slow down an agency’s ability to respond quickly to new, sector-specific cyber threats if they aren't considered an official 'emergency' (which waives the consultation requirement).

In essence, the bill trades sector-specific regulatory agility for government-wide consistency. For entities operating in highly sensitive sectors, like critical infrastructure, a delay in regulatory updates could be a real concern. This new structure centralizes influence over all federal cyber rulemaking under the National Cyber Director and the Committee, potentially creating a powerful bottleneck for agencies that prefer to maintain specialized, unique rules tailored to their specific industries.