Back in July, Sen Hassan (D,NH) 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 very similar 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. That means that there may be enough influence to see this bill considered by the Committee. Having said that, because the current Chair of the Committee, Sen Paul (R,KY), voted against a nearly identical bill last session, it is unlikely that S 5067 will be considered in this session.
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-b39 - subscription required.
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