Letter to the Hon. John Carter, Chairman of the Committee on Appropriations and the Hon. Lucille Roybal-Allard, Ranking Member of the Committee on Appropriations - Reps. Ratcliffe, Langevin, Hurd Push for Critical Cybersecurity Funding

Letter

Dear Chairman Carter and Ranking Member Roybal-Allard:

As you begin crafting the Fiscal Year 2019 Homeland Security Appropriations legislation, we write in regard to the Department of Homeland Security's Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program. As you know, the CDM program provides dynamic cybersecurity capabilities to allow federal agencies to secure their networks, systems and data with the goal of strengthening federal cybersecurity posture for the .gov. Additionally, CDM expands the speed and scope of information sharing and motivates agencies to implement best practices across their enterprise.

In 2012, DHS launched the roll-out of a four-phase process that will allow CDM to eventually provide the American people the kind of federal cybersecurity that they deserve. Right now, DHS is overseeing the process of identifying what systems are connected to the federal networks and who has access to those systems before shifting into the final phase, which will focus on the security of the data itself. The CDM program is of paramount importance because of its ability to provide the federal enterprise with the ability to monitor and assess the vulnerabilities and threats to its networks and systems in an ever-changing cyber threat landscape.

As such, we respectfully request that you include $237 million in the Fiscal Year 2019 Homeland Security Appropriations legislation to help the CDM program and DHS' overarching cybersecurity mission of providing federal departments and agencies with the capabilities and tools they need to secure networks and systems from intrusions. Thank you for your consideration of this request.

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