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Cybersecurity Enhancement Act Of 2009

Floor Speech

Date: Feb. 3, 2010
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: National Security Technology and Communication Defense

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Ms. CLARKE. Mr. Chairman, today I rise to offer my amendment to H.R. 4061 and request that it be supported along with the underlying legislation.

I first want to commend Chairman Gordon, Ranking Member Hall, and Representative Lipinski, as well as Representative McCaul, for their leadership in bringing this important bipartisan bill to the floor today and for supporting this amendment.

The Federal Government currently relies heavily on contract employees for critical cybersecurity functions. For instance, according to the Department of Homeland Security's Inspector General, contractors accounted for 83 percent of the total staff of the Department's Office of the Chief Information Officer.

A July 2009 Booz Allen Hamilton assessment of the cyberworkforce, titled, ``Cyber In-Security: Strengthening the Federal Cybersecurity Workforce,'' concluded the Federal Government needs more employees who can effectively manage the blended cybersecurity workforce of contractors and in-house employees.

Clearly, any assessment of the cybersecurity workforce should include an analysis of contract employees who perform cybersecurity functions for the government. My amendment to H.R. 4061, the Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2009, would do just that, amending section 107 of the bill to include an analysis of the extent to which Federal agencies rely on contractors to support the Federal cybersecurity workforce as well as each agency's capacity to manage these contractors.

The amendment is not intended to judge whether Federal cybersecurity functions should be performed by government or contractor employees. It simply requires that these considerations be included in the workforce study.

I hope that you will join me in supporting this amendment.

I would just like to add that, as chair of the Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity, and Science and Technology, I have become intimately aware of the cybersecurity challenges we face in the 21st century. I initially offered several other amendments which address the wide variety of challenges that we face, and I will work to address these issues through my subcommittee.

Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

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