Article by: Liz Hoegel and Taylor Goodspeed
The proposed “Cybersecurity Workforce Act,” taking aim at nationwide cybersecurity instruction, failed by a 24-36 vote in the House Committee on Homeland Security.
This bill focused on providing cybersecurity workforce training to computer science students to equip the next generation to shore up America’s cybersecurity policies and research in the future.
One co-author of the bill, who asked to remain anonymous, stated one goal of the bill was to “[stop] future attacks before they can start overtaking our systems and infiltrating our databases.” The primary objective, though, as stated by the authors, was to protect[the United States of America] and personal databases.
In the course of deliberations, delegates spoke in favor of this bill and highlighted the importance of education about cybersecurity. “It's about new experts, it's about bringing us together to combat this problem,” said one delegate who voted for the passing of this bill.
Despite the authors’ clear objectives and a prevailing sense of good will flowing through the committee, multiple delegates spoke in opposition to this bill.
An anonymous critic of the Cybersecurity Workforce Act went as far as dubbing it“legislative authoritarianism.” What once seemed like a bill that had full committee support, took a devastating hit from its opposition in the committee’s final vote. For now, proposed improvements to America’s cybersecurity curricula are bound for the back-burner.