HR 86 Introduced – Cybersecurity Education

Rep. Jackson-Lee introduced HR 86, the Cybersecurity Education Enhancement Act of 2013. This two is a duplicate of a bill she introduced in the opening days of the 112^th Congress; in this case HR 76.

Education Grants

Section 2 of the bill would require the Secretary, acting through the Assistant Secretary for Cybersecurity, to establish a three pronged cybersecurity education grant program. The program would provide grants for {§2(a)}:

• The establishment or expansion of cybersecurity professional development programs;

• The establishment or expansion (or both) of associate degree programs in cybersecurity; and

• The purchase of equipment to provide training in cybersecurity for either professional development programs or degree programs.

The bill would authorize {§2(e)} $3.7 million for FY 2012 and FY 2013 for these grants. There is no mention, however, of where the funds would come from; no mention of what program would be trimmed to allow for this appropriation.

E-Security Fellows Program

Section 3 would amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 by adding §226 to establish a fellowship program to allow State, local, tribal, and private sector officials to participate in the work of the National Cybersecurity Division. The goal is to {§3(a)(1):

• Enhance Federal, State, local, and tribal government cybersecurity;

• Develop partnerships with other Federal agencies, State, local, and tribal governments, and the private sector;

• Improve and enhance public/private information sharing involving cyber attacks, threats, and vulnerabilities;

• Provide and coordinate incident response and recovery planning efforts; and

• Foster training and certification.

Moving Forward

This is a copy of just one of a number of cybersecurity bills from the last session that saw no action after it was introduced. Once again, as Congress tries to write a comprehensive cybersecurity bill, narrowly focused bills like this will get lost in the shuffle.