HR 494 Introduced – Extends Coverage of Cyber Scholarship Program

Last month, Rep Connolly (D,VA) introduced HR 494, a bill that would make improvements to the Federal Cyber Scholarship for Service Program. It would amend 15 USC 7442(c) to extend the time covered by the program from three years to five years of study. No new funding is provided in the legislation.

This HR 494 is essentially identical to HR 10209 that was introduced in November of last year by Connolly. That bill was introduced too late in the session for any action to have been taken.

Neither Connolly, nor his sole cosponsor {Rep Strong (R,AL)}, are members of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration. This means that there is likely not to be sufficient influence to see the bill considered in Committee. I suspect that there may be some opposition to this bill because it would dilute the number of scholarships that would be issued under the program as it is unlikely that additional funding would be provided to cover the longer scholarship period. That opposition would probably not be enough to kill the bill in Committee, but may be enough to stop its consideration before the full House under the suspension of the rules process.