OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Rural and Municipal Utility Cybersecurity Act

Floor Speech

Date: June 29, 2026
Location: Washington, DC

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Ms. CASTOR of Florida. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

H.R. 7266, the Rural and Municipal Utility Cybersecurity Act, sponsored by the gentlewoman from Virginia (Ms. McClellan) and the gentlewoman from Iowa (Mrs. Miller-Meeks), reauthorizes a critical program from the bipartisan infrastructure law. This initiative is designed to aid municipal utilities, rural electric cooperatives, and small investor-owned utilities.

The reason this is important is that the cyber threats to our Nation's power grid are growing every day, from sophisticated cyberattacks from nation-state actors to AI-enhanced cyberattacks from single criminals. The offensive capabilities of people who would attack our power grid are growing.

The only solution is an investment in a robust defense of the grid. While larger utilities may have more resources to invest in cybersecurity, the smaller utilities and nonprofit cooperatives and municipal utilities may not have the resources to spend on sophisticated cyber defenses.

The rural and municipal utility cybersecurity program steps in to fill the gap, ensuring that those smaller entities get the assistance and the guidance they need from the Department of Energy.

In addition to reauthorizing this important initiative, the bill makes it easier for smaller utilities to access DOE's technical assistance programs, a tweak that should result in more eligible utilities gaining access to DOE's knowledge and resources.

Madam Speaker, I thank Representative McClellan for her work as the co-lead on this bill. I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes,'' and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Ms. CASTOR of Florida. Madam Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from Virginia (Ms. McClellan), and I thank her for her leadership on behalf of rural and smaller municipal utilities in communities across the country.

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Ms. CASTOR of Florida. Madam Speaker, I urge a ``yes'' vote on the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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