From: FCW
by Amber Corrin
In a week flooded with breaking news, cybersecurity has not been dominating headlines. Nevertheless, no fewer than four bills made their way through the House as lawmakers once again took up cyber measures.
The House passed three cybersecurity-related bills on April 16, and late on April 17, members were debating the fourth and most controversial, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act. Lawmakers were expected to vote on amendments on April 17, with a vote on whether to pass the bill expected on April 18.
The package of complementary bills must also clear the Senate, where cybersecurity legislation failed last year, and receive the president’s signature of approval.
“We can pass bills in the House all day long, but if the Senate doesn’t pass them and the president doesn’t sign, where are we?” said Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.), a CISPA co-sponsor and ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, during floor debate on April 17.
The House passed the Cybersecurity Enhancement Act, which mandates strategic guidance for federal cybersecurity research and development. To establish that guidance, the bill calls for input from public and private stakeholders, and strengthens security automation standards and checklists for federal systems.
It also requires President Barack Obama to assess federal cybersecurity workforce needs by agency and provide information on skills sought and the projected capacity to meet workforce needs.
Additionally, the bill boosts partnerships with academia, including cyber research and education at the National Science Foundation by reauthorizing funding that expired in 2007 but has been carried out under general authorities from continuing resolutions. It also calls for scholarships for federal IT workforce internships, a university/industry task force on cybersecurity research, and coordination of cyber awareness and education efforts.
Advancing America’s Networking and IT Research and Development Act of 2013 updates 1991’s High-Performance Computing Act. The new bill brings the authorities of the Networking and IT Research and Development program into the 21st century. NITRD is the government’s centralized effort to coordinate unclassified IT research and development among federal agencies.
The NITRD update aims to improve interagency coordination and planning. It calls for a strategic plan for the program that would codify current National Coordination Office efforts and implement recommendations from the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. The bill also shifts the focus from short-term goals to long-term research on a broader, more up-to-date scale and would establish an interagency working group to target gaps in federal cloud research.
Leave a Reply