Advancing Cybersecurity Diagnostics and Mitigation Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. RATCLIFFE. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 6443) to amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to authorize the Secretary of Homeland Security to establish a continuous diagnostics and mitigation program at the Department of Homeland Security, and for other purposes, as amended.

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Mr. Speaker, earlier this year, the Office of Management and Budget and the Department of Homeland Security released a report on the cybersecurity risks faced by Federal agencies. Among the findings of that report was that almost 75 percent of our Federal agencies are vulnerable to cyber threats, in large part due to their inability to understand cybersecurity risks and, therefore, to properly prioritize resources.

Mr. Speaker, it is statistics like this that should make the state of our Nation's cyber readiness and resilience deeply troubling to all of us. And it is one of the main reasons that DHS' Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation, or CDM, program has been one of my top priorities during my time as chairman of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection Subcommittee. That is because CDM has the potential to provide solutions to this problem by dramatically increasing visibility across Federal networks, thereby dramatically improving the ability of DHS, OMB, and agency security officers to better understand the technology assets being utilized across their agencies.

Mr. Speaker, at the end of the day, looking across all networks and systems the Federal Government owns and operates, it comes down to fingers on government keyboards, whether they be laptops, desktops, tablets, servers, or in data centers.

We need to know what we have before we can try to defend it.

That is why the CDM program is so crucial to the cybersecurity posture of our Federal Government. Through its phased rollout, CDM requires DHS to provide agencies with the capabilities to collect the cybersecurity risk information necessary to make better decisions. It not only allows the ability to combat our enemies in cyberspace, but also to help Federal CIOs manage information technology.

The security data that CDM capabilities and tools collect will help Federal CIOs and DHS make smarter choices about where taxpayer dollars are going and to understand some of the most basic questions a cybersecurity expert faces, including what devices are on the network.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 6443 is necessary to codify the CDM program at DHS and ensure that these authorities will exist to allow the continued progress of this essential cybersecurity program.

Making sure that Federal agencies have access to the tools and capabilities they need to defend their networks and getting DHS the data to understand cybersecurity risks and vulnerabilities, and to coordinate our Federal network defenses, are paramount concerns in this technological age.

My goal, and the goal of the bipartisan group of cosponsors supporting H.R. 6443, is to help boost the long-term success of the CDM program.

This bill also ensures that this program keeps pace with the cutting- edge capabilities being developed in the private sector, thereby avoiding the type of vendor lock that has previously been a problem. In that way, this bill ensures that we will be modernizing and updating our systems before they become legacy technologies unsupported by vendors and at even greater risk of being exploited by our digital adversaries.

It is DHS' CDM program that will help Federal agencies and the whole of the Federal Government to understand the threats they face and the risks that these vulnerabilities pose in real time. Authorizing the CDM program will further DHS' role in the cybersecurity mission throughout our government and will continue to strengthen and elevate this important program.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. RATCLIFFE. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my friends across the aisle, Ranking Member Thompson and Congressman Langevin, for their support of this bill. I would like to thank the ranking member of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection Subcommittee, Mr. Richmond, for cosponsoring this bill.

Mr. Speaker, this is, very simply, commonsense legislation that will strengthen our Nation's cybersecurity posture and thereby strengthen our Nation's national security.

Mr. Speaker, once again, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 6443, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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