Legislative Branch Activity

Upcoming Hearings:

  • Tuesday, March 11: The Senate Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing to consider the nomination of Navy Vice Admiral Michael S. Rogers to be Admiral and Director of the National Security Agency, Chief of the Central Security Services, and Commander of U.S. Cyber Command. In addition, the Committee will also consider the nomination of Air Force General Paul J. Selva for reappointment to the grade of General and to be Commander of the Transportation Command.
  • Wednesday, March 12: The House Armed Services Subcommittee on Intelligence, Emerging Threats and Capabilities will hold a hearing titled “Information Technology and Cyber Operations: Modernization and Policy Issues in a Changing National Security      Environment.” Commander of the U.S. Cyber Command General Keith Alexander will testify at the hearing.

Executive Branch Activity

FY 2015 Cybersecurity Funding

President Obama released his FY 2015 budget last week which included a number of cybersecurity-related initiatives for both the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Defense (DOD). The DHS budget proposed a total of $1.25 billion for cybersecurity activities, including $8.5 million to establish and implement DHS’s voluntary program for critical infrastructure owners and operators looking to implement the Cybersecurity Framework created as part of the President’s February 2013 cybersecurity Executive Order. This funding will support DHS’s enhanced cybersecurity services capabilities to provide support for critical infrastructure as they implement the Framework and identify cyber risks within their networks. The budget also requests $67.5 million for cybersecurity research, development testing and evaluation, as well as $143 million to implement the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation program to support activities that strengthen the operational security of federal civilian networks.

The DOD budget includes a total of $5.1 billion for cybersecurity initiatives to protect and defend against cyber threats. In addition, the FY 2015 budget also proposes to spend $35 million to design a federal cybersecurity campus. This campus would seek to co-locate key civilian agencies that work on cybersecurity issues to promote a “whole-of-government” approach to responding to and mitigating cybersecurity incidents.