House panel pauses cybersecurity fund after questions about continuous appropriation and fiscal note

Representative Wendy Horman introduced House Bill 168, saying the bill would create a Cybersecurity and Resiliency Fund to pay future IT expenses and help protect state infrastructure and citizen data.

"We have consolidated a lot of IT functionality at the Office of Information Technology Services," Representative Wendy Horman said. "We would like to create this fund and then draw from it in future years for IT expenses."

Nut graf: The bill seeks recurring resources for replacement of critical hardware and related software—firewalls, routers, switches, wireless access points, servers, endpoint devices and selected software—managed by ITS and overseen through existing governance. Members pressed staff on how a continuously appropriated fund would interact with agency budgets, whether the Legislature would retain annual oversight, and why the request was set at $10 million.

Alberto Gonzales, Director of ITS, described the threat environment and the items the fund…