Review - S 4565 Introduced – Chinese Cyber Threats

Back in May, Sen Scott (R,FL) introduced S 4565, the Strengthening Cyber Resilience Against State-Sponsored Threats Act. The bill would require CISA to establish an interagency task force to “detect, analyze, and respond to the cybersecurity threat posed by State-sponsored cyber actors, including Volt Typhoon, of the People’s Republic of China”. The task force would submit annual classified reports to Congress. No new funding is authorized by this legislation. 

A nearly identical bill, HR 2659, the Strengthening Cyber Resilience Against State-Sponsored Threats Act, was introduced by Rep Ogles (R,TN) in April 2025. On April 9th, 2025, the House Homeland Security Committee held a business meeting where HR 2659 was considered; the bill was ordered reported favorably by a voice vote. The Committee Report was published on August 15th, 2025. On November 17th, the full House took up the bill under the suspension of the rules process; the bill passed by a vote of 402 to 8. No action has been taken on the bill in the Senate. 

A press release from Scott’s office notes that:  

“Senator Rick Scott said, “As the world’s leading digital economy, America has the most to lose in a cyberattack. If we don’t secure our digital infrastructure, hackers could cut power to your house, empty your bank account, or disable life support for a loved one in the hospital. Americans shouldn’t worry about a cyber threat from the CCP, which is why I’m proud to be introducing this legislation with Rep. Ogles. The House has done its job in passing this bill, now we need the Senate to do ours.”” 

Moving Forward  

Both Scott and his sole cosponsor, Sen Fetterman (D,PA), are members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration. This means that there may be adequate influence to see the bill considered by the Committee. I do not see anything in the bill that would engender any organized opposition, though there is a real possibility that the Chair, Sen Paul (R,TN), might have some objections to the bill. I do expect that there would be some level of bipartisan support for this bill. The bill, however, is not politically important enough to take up the limited amount of time left in the session that needs to be expended to be considered under regular order. 

For more information on the provisions of this bill, including a commentary on the lack of participation by the intelligence community, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/s-4565-introduced-chinese-cyber-threats - subscription required.