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U.S. Reps Andrew Garbarino (R-NY) and Andy Ogles (R-TN) said they applauded the House vote to approve the passage of legislation they said would combat Chinese cyber aggression.
Garbarino, the chair of the House Committee on Homeland Security, said the legislation, the Protecting Information by Local Leaders for Agency Resilience Act, or the PILLAR Act, along with the “Strengthening Cyber Resilience Against State-Sponsored Threats Act,” would help address Chinese cyber threats through grant funding to local governments, as well as establishing a task force to look into the issue at the federal level.
“As sophisticated nation-state adversaries and criminals target our nation’s critical infrastructure and government agencies in cyberspace, it is essential that states and localities have the necessary tools to protect the networks our communities rely on,” Garbarino said. “The PILLAR Act continues and improves the State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program, which provides vital resources to bolster our local cyber defenses.”
The PILLAR Act would reauthorize the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program that provides grants to state, local, tribal, and territorial governments to address cybersecurity risks and threats to information systems and operational technology systems.
The legislation is supported by the Alliance for Digital Innovation (ADI), Association of the United States Cyber Forces (AUSCF), Cyber Threat Alliance (CTA), the Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), Global Cyber Alliance (GCA), Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), Operational Technology Cybersecurity Coalition (OTCC), Palo Alto Networks, and Software & Information Industry Association (SIAA), among others.
The legislation would reauthorize the grant program for seven years and stabilizes the cost share at 60 percent for single entities or 70 percent for multi-entity groups. The legislation also incentivizes the implementation of multi-factor authentication across critical infrastructure and adds language to capture operational technology as well as encouraging the adoption of artificial intelligence when applicable.
The Strengthening Cyber Resilience Against State-Sponsored Threats Act would establish an interagency task force to address the cybersecurity threats posed by state-sponsored cyber actors associated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
“Our adversaries abroad are using cyberspace as the battlefield to undermine American sovereignty and interests,” Ogles said. “Now that my bill has passed, we are one step closer to locking out the foreign communists trying to steal American data. America First cybersecurity is the way, and this bill provides a critical solution.”
