Review - S 5067 Introduced – Cybersecurity Training

Last month, Sen Hassan introduced S 5067, the Federal Cybersecurity Workforce Expansion Act. It would require CISA to establish an apprenticeship program that would lead to cybersecurity related employment with CISA or other Federal entity. The bill would also require the Veterans Administration to establish a pilot program providing cyber-specific training for eligible individuals. There is no funding authorized in the legislation. 

S 5067 is essentially the same as to S 2256, the Federal Cybersecurity Workforce Expansion Act, that was introduced by Hassan in July 2023. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee held a business meeting on July 26th, 2023, and ordered the bill reported favorably by a vote of 7 to 1 {Sen Paul (R,KY) voting NAY}. No further action was taken on the bill in the 118th Congress. A similar bill, HR 6524, was introduced in the Housse by Rep Houlahan (D,PA) in November of 2023. No action was taken on that bill in the House. 

Moving Forward  

Hassan is a member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration. This means that there may be sufficient influence to see the bill considered by that Committee. Unfortunately, Paul’s (now Chair of the Committee) opposition to the earlier version of this bill will probably ensure that the bill is not considered.  

If the Committee were to consider the bill (and Paul has brought the occasional bill before the Committee to which he objected), I suspect that it would receive substantial bipartisan support. Unfortunately, this bill is not politically important enough to consume the time necessary for this bill to be considered by the full Senate under regular order. And Paul’s opposition would almost certainly prevent the bill from being considered under the unanimous consent process. 

Commentary 

While this bill does not directly address control system security issues, increasing the cybersecurity qualified staffing of CISA is certainly of interest to the ICS security community. While the training programs established under this bill would be targeted at future CISA employment, they should result in a net increase to the nation’s cybersecurity workforce. 

For more information on the provisions of this bill, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/s-5067-introduced-cybersecurity-training - subscription required.