Homeland Security Cybersecurity Boots-on-the-Ground Act
Floor Speech
Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my support for H.R. 3107, the ``Homeland Security Cybersecurity Boots-on-the-Ground Act''.
I would like to commend Subcommittee Ranking Member Clarke for her commitment to addressing a critical issue for the Department of Homeland Security--how to recruit and retain a robust cybersecurity workforce.
There is an urgent need for greater protection of our cyber infrastructure, with the rate and intensity of system breaches at an all-time high and the mounting source of cyber threats.
The Department of Homeland Security is the lead Federal agency for protecting the government's Internet platform ``.gov'' and for partnering with the private sector on cybersecurity.
Attracting the best and brightest in the cybersecurity field has been a chronic challenge for the Department. In an effort to come up with some effective strategies to overcome that challenge, in July 2012, then-Secretary Janet Napolitano directed the Homeland Security Advisory Committee to assemble a ``Task Force on CyberSkills''.
The Task Force issued a series of recommendations that included the adoption of a list of mission-critical cybersecurity tasks and a model for assessing the competency and progress of the existing and future DHS mission-critical cybersecurity workforce.
H.R. 3107 adopts many of the Task Force's key recommendations.
For instance, in order to recruit the Department with the cyber workforce it needs, H.R. 3107 requires DHS to have comprehensive occupation classifications to categorize what types of work will be done in each position.
Today, DHS does not utilize a uniform classification system and, as a result, positions get posted that offer little clarity on what knowledge, skills, and experience is sought.
Sophisticated cyber mission-critical skills are not a dime-a-dozen, and Federal agencies have to compete among themselves, and especially private sector employers for talent.
This bill seeks to ensure that DHS has an effective approach to attracting, hiring, and retaining a mission-critical cybersecurity workforce.
I urge my colleagues to support this bipartisan legislation.
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