HR 6824 Reported in House – Cybersecurity Competition

While the House passed HR 6824 earlier this week, the Committee Report for the bill was not publicly available until after the vote was held. The Report makes the point (pgs 3-4) that the ‘President’s Cup Cybersecurity Competition’ that would be authorized by the bill have actually been held since 2019. The report concludes that discussion by saying:

“H.R. 6824 will specifically authorize the President’s Cup Cybersecurity Competition in law in a manner that provides CISA with needed authority to award cash prizes to the winners to reward their demonstrated cybersecurity skills, which can act as an important retention tool. Codifying the President’s Cup will demonstrate that both Congress is committed to addressing Federal cybersecurity recruitment and retention challenges and values the Federal cyber workforce.”

That is, perhaps, a more positive spin than I normally put on congressional efforts to authorize activities already being undertaken by the Executive Branch. In this case, I will give them credit for the effort and intent publicly stated, since they did give CISA credit for the origination of the program.