Senate Homeland Security Committee Advances Cybersecurity, Supply Chain Bills
The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs held a business meeting last week to advance several legislative items collectively intended to bolster cybersecurity in the U.S. and promote supply chain modernization.
One of the bills passed through the committee was the Cybersecurity Opportunity Act, introduced by Senator Jon Ossoff (D-GA). The legislation would give the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) the authority to make grants to historically black colleges and universities and minority-serving institutions to promote cybersecurity education and research.
Senator Ossoff explained, “We've heard over the last several months, amidst continued increased tempo of cyberattacks and ransomware attacks targeting the public and private sectors in this country from SolarWinds to the Colonial Pipeline, about the need to increase our production of a qualified cybersecurity workforce.”
Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) also has a bill advance through the committee. The Domains Critical to Homeland Security Act would help lawmakers gain a better understanding of the critical infrastructure in the United States.
Senator Portman explained, “We don't have the information. We don't know what our critical infrastructure is. We don't know what the critical domains are. What this legislation does is it requires DHS to finally do that study and actually come up with solutions as to how we can strengthen our supply chains and, specifically, it says, you know you guys have to figure out what the domains are that are critical to homeland security.”
In coming months, Senator Portman plans to introduce more legislation that would boost cybersecurity, especially following the SolarWinds hack. The legislation to come would update the Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014. The committee also advanced bills to help agencies counter deepfakes and provide artificial intelligence training to procurement officials.
