Review - HR 7885 Introduced – Cybersecurity Skills Integration

Back in March Rep Thompson (R,PA) introduced HR 7885, the Cybersecurity Skills Integration Act. The bill would require the Department of Education to start a pilot grant program to develop a “postsecondary career and technical education programs that integrate cybersecurity education”. The legislation would authorize $10 million to support the pilot program. 

HR 7885 is essentially identical to HR 6124, the Cybersecurity Skills Integration Act, that was introduced by Thompson in October 2023. No action was taken on that bill in the 118th Congress. 

Moving Forward 

Thompson is a member of the House Education and Labor Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration. This means that there should be sufficient influence to see this bill considered by the Committee. I would expect to see some Republican opposition to the bill because of the $10 million price tag, but that opposition would be offset by Democratic support. I am not sure that it would receive sufficient bipartisan support to be considered in the House under the suspension of the rules process if it were to make it that far. 

Commentary 

This is the first piece of cybersecurity legislation that I have seen where it appears that the crafters of the bill really have a basic understanding of the unique dangers related to attacks on industrial control systems in process industries. In each of the first two parts of the definition of ‘cybersecurity education’ references are made to ‘control systems and operational technology’. It is in the third part of the definition, however, where those potential dangers are really addressed: 

“(C) training to ensure the continuous physical and environmental safety of the operations of critical infrastructure systems.” 

For more information on the provisions of this bill, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-7885-introduced-cybersecurity - subscription required.