Review – HR 6631 Introduced – DOD Cybersecurity Education

Earlier this month Rep Elfreth (D,MD) introduced HR 6631, the Establishing Cyber Security Educational Programs at Academic Institutions Act. The bill would require DOD to collaborate with academic institutions to develop cybersecurity educational programs at such institutions. Collaboration with other federal agencies would ensure that the program would not compete or conflict with other such federal programs. No new funding is authorized.

Moving Forward

Both Elfreth and her sole cosponsor, Rep Luttrell (R,TX) are members of the House Armed Services Committee to hic this bill as assigned for consideration. This means that there may be sufficient influence to see the bill considered in Committee. I see nothing in the bill that would engender any organized opposition, and I would suspect that there should be bipartisan support for the legislation. We will have to wait and see if there is sufficient bipartisan support for the bill to be considered by the full House under the suspension of the rules process.

Commentary

While subsection 2(a) requires DOD to “develop cybersecurity [emphasis added] educational programs”, paragraph 2(c)(1) expands that scope to include “cyber defense, cyber operations, and cyber research”. This should be expected of a DOD sponsored program and would differentiate the overall program from those sponsored by other federal agencies. While graduates of these DOD programs could be expected to seek out DOT related jobs, or military commissions, the skills learned could still be applicable to civilian cybersecurity positions.

 

For more information on the provisions of this bill, including additional commentary on OT coverage, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-6631-introduced-dod-cybersecurity - subscription required.