Chairman Green Opens Cyber Workforce Hearing: "Our nation's security and prosperity depends upon a resilient cyber posture"
WASHINGTON—Today, House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Mark E. Green, MD (R-TN) delivered the following opening statement in a hearing to examine America’s cyber workforce shortage. Chairman Green reintroduced the “Cyber PIVOTT Act” ahead of the hearing.
Watch Chairman Green’s opening statement.
As prepared for delivery:
We’re here to continue our focus on what I am convinced is the top cyber challenge we face: the cyber workforce gap. This issue has been a top priority for me since last Congress, and I know it is for many of you too. Every Member’s district on this Committee—and across Congress—is affected by the cyber workforce gap.
Today, our nation lacks about 500,000 cyber professionals. That’s about 1 million eyes that are not looking at our networks and critical infrastructure, which are targeted every day by malicious nation-state actors like Volt and Salt Typhoon.
At a time when we need to get on the offense, we can barely play defense. We simply don’t have enough people in the right jobs with the right skills to stay on top of the significant cyber threats our homeland faces.
We covered many of those threats in our first committee hearing two weeks ago. Whether we’re dealing with China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, or criminal actors, one thing is clear: our vulnerabilities span from our heartland’s hardware to our cities’ software.
Sometimes they are targeted attacks, like ransomware. And sometimes our vulnerabilities stem from poor cyber hygiene or economic models that do not prioritize cybersecurity.
Whatever the case, we need to do better—now. Our nation’s security and prosperity depends upon a resilient cyber posture—something we can only assure by adequately preparing our pipeline of cyber professionals.
Over the years, there have been many initiatives to address the cyber workforce gap. Our witnesses here today have been at the forefront of some of those efforts. They should be applauded, and those efforts should be continued.
However, it is clear we need a new, but complementary, approach:
One that brings together the public and private sectors to fill skill gaps at all levels of government and in industry.
One that creates quick pathways for individuals who do not want to complete a four-year degree, or want to pivot careers.
One that provides hands-on experiences to ensure individuals are ready to work on day one, and are supported throughout their career journey.
One that cultivates a sense of community and service to country, like ROTC.
One that can be scaled and makes good use of all the resources we’ve invested as a nation—including ensuring the benefits extend to even our most rural communities.
One that is accessible to all Americans.
One that will finally change the decades-long narrative around the cyber workforce gap.
I believe that my bill, the Cyber PIVOTT Act, directly addresses all these issues in a meaningful way. That is why I am proud to have re-introduced my bill today, along with Reps. Ezell, Guest, Gimenez, Higgins, Biggs, Evans, Moolenaar, Strong, and Rogers.
We have received significant support for the bill, including the American Association of Community Colleges. I want to thank our stakeholders and would like to submit the following statements for the record today. These come from leading cybersecurity companies, experts, certification bodies, and trade associations: Palo Alto Networks, Business Software Alliance (BSA), the Internet Security Alliance, Foundation for Defense of Democracies, R Street Institute, the International Information System Security Certification Consortium (ISC2), the National Rural Electric Coop Association (NRECA), Forescout Technologies, Peraton, the Cyber Innovation Center and CYBER.ORG, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Ivanti, the McCrary Institute, Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), Advocacy Blueprints, Microsoft, Darktrace, and the Special Competitive Studies Project.
It is time to sign the Cyber PIVOTT Act into law, and I look forward to working across the aisle to ensure we can do it in a bipartisan way.
Last year, we held a full committee hearing on the cybersecurity workforce gap with government witnesses. Today, we will examine the private sector perspective.
Thank you to our expert panel for joining us here today. Your diverse experiences in academia, critical infrastructure, cybersecurity, and non-profits will give us a holistic understanding of the complexities we face in bolstering our cyber workforce, and the strategies we must consider for reducing the workforce gap once and for all.
I look forward to this important discussion today.
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