HR 5593 Introduced - Cybersecurity Opportunity

Last week, Rep Johnson (D,GA) introduced HR 5593, the Cybersecurity Opportunity Act. This bill is nearly identical in intent to S 2305 introduced by Sen. Ossoff in June. This version is legislatively more complex but it would still have required DHS to “award grants to assist institutions of higher education that have an enrollment of needy students, historically Black colleges and universities, and minority-serving institutions, to establish or expand cybersecurity programs, to build and upgrade institutional capacity to better support new or existing cybersecurity programs.”

Johnson was not a member of either the House Education and Labor or Homeland Security Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration. Of the 40 cosponsors, however, 10 are members of the House Homeland Security Committee and five are members of the Education and Labor Committee. This should mean that there would be adequate influence to see this bill considered in Committee. I see nothing in this bill that would engender any specific opposition. I suspect that the bill would receive at least some measure of bipartisan support even without any Republican cosponsors.