House Homeland Security subcommittee hearing urges reauthorization and fixes for state and local cybersecurity grant program

At a hearing of the House Committee on Homeland Security’s Subcommittee on Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection, congressional members and a panel of state and local officials, and private-sector witnesses reviewed the State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program and urged Congress to reauthorize it and address administrative obstacles.

The program, created in 2021, provides federal grant funding to help state, local, tribal and territorial governments improve cybersecurity for systems that support public services. Members and witnesses said reauthorization is urgent because the program is scheduled to expire in September and because adversary cyber activity against U.S. critical infrastructure is increasing.

Why it matters: Reauthorizing SLCGP would maintain a federal funding stream used by states and municipalities to buy cybersecurity tools, perform assessments, expand incident response and provide training. Witnesses described both measurable benefits — for example, Utah officials said the state used grant funds to provision endpoint security on more than 26,000 devices and provide awareness training to roughly 31,000 local employees — and persistent challenges, including administrative burden, uneven distribution mechanisms and workforce shortages.

Witnesses and testimony: Tenable’s witness (identified in the transcript as Robert…