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Committee lays over bill to fund cybersecurity help for small cities, counties and townships
Summary
House File 140, authored by Representative Bonner, would provide cybersecurity support and grants for under-resourced local governments; the committee adopted an A‑1 amendment to add townships above 5,000 population to eligibility and laid the bill over for further work.
House File 140, a bill aimed at improving cybersecurity capacity for local governments, was heard Feb. 27, 2025 by the Minnesota House State Government Finance and Policy Committee and laid over for further work.
Representative Bonner, the bill’s author, said the proposal addresses a growing wave of cyber incidents that threaten local services. "We're only as strong as our weakest link," Bonner said, citing high-profile breaches and warning that small cities and townships often lack dedicated IT staff and basic protections. She described the bill as a "start" to position local partners to secure data and critical infrastructure.
Daniel Lightfoot of the League of Minnesota Cities told the committee that many small cities lack dedicated IT staff: of 150 cities with populations above 5,000, only 83 employ IT staff or use managed services; the rest commonly lack basic backups and security tools. Graham Berg Moberg of the Minnesota Association of Townships said many townships handle sensitive resident data (W-2s, Social Security numbers) and lack protections; he said a $5,000 compromise in the bill is a reasonable first step in a budget-constrained year.
Representative Bonner moved and the committee adopted the A‑1 amendment, which corrects drafting language and inserts a 5,000-population threshold for township eligibility; nonpartisan staff confirmed the oral change. Members asked for clarifying edits to make it explicit that the 5,000 threshold applies to townships and for technical fixes prior to further action. Letters of support from MNIT and the League of Minnesota Cities were in the bill packet.
The committee laid the bill over to allow additional drafting and fiscal review; authors and proponents said they will work with affected local units of government and MNIT to refine eligibility, grant mechanics and implementation details.
