Review - S 2274 Introduced - Federal Cybersecurity Workforce Expansion

Last month Sen Hassan (D,NH) introduced S 2274, the Federal Cybersecurity Workforce Expansion Act. It would allow CISA to establish an apprenticeship program that would lead to cybersecurity related employment with CISA or a CISA supporting entity. The bill would also require the Veterans Administration to establish a pilot program providing cyber-specific training for eligible individuals. The CISA program is authorized ‘such funds as necessary’, but no funding is specified for the VA program.

Hassan is a member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration. She probably has enough influence to see this bill considered in Committee. I see nothing in the bill that would engender any specific opposition. I suspect that it would receive significant bipartisan support in committee. This bill would not be considered on the floor of the Senate under regular order, but it might make it into the DHS spending bill as an amendment.

While this bill does not directly address control system security issues, increasing the cybersecurity qualified staffing of CISA is certainly of interest to the ICS security community. While the training programs established under this bill would be targeted at future CISA employment, they should result in a net increase to the nation’s cybersecurity workforce.

For a closer look at the details of this bill, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/s-2274-introduced - subscription required.