McCaul Bill to Improve DHS Cyber Mission Passes House

I, the Lead Republican on the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Chairman Emeritus on the House Homeland Security Committee, spoke on the House Floor in support of my legislation, the DHS Cyber Incident Response Teams Act of 2019. Upon passage, I released the following statement:

“When cyber-attacks occur, immediate expertise is needed to mitigate damage and ensure organizations are restored. Cyber Incident Response Teams provide that expertise and function as our cyber first responders.

“Today’s legislation ensures that the Department of Homeland Security can foster collaboration between the public and private sector to ensure our nation can continue to adapt to the constant changes in the cyber landscape. I want to thank my colleagues for their support on passage today and I hope to see this legislation get signed into law and codify these essential efforts at the Department.”

You can click here or on the image below to view my floor remarks.

Below are Congressman McCaul’s remarks as prepared:

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I rise today in support of my bill, H.R. 1158, the DHS Cyber Incident Response Teams Act of 2019. 

During my time as Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, I prioritized ensuring that our nation had the capacity to respond to cyber threats and protect our critical infrastructure.

I am proud to say we have made important strides in recent years, including standing up the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).

However, we still must press forward with innovative solutions to respond to a constantly changing threat landscape.

To that end, my bill authorizes CISA’s ability to maintain cyber incident response teams to assist against cyberattacks on the government and private sector.

These teams not only help respond to cyberattacks, but also help mitigate the potential destruction they cause, and restore damaged networks after.

Additionally, my bill allows for leading industry specialists to serve on these teams to provide outside expertise.

This ensures that we have the best and brightest from both the public and private sectors working in unison to secure our critical infrastructure and vital national networks.

These response teams are a force multiplier—enhancing our cybersecurity workforce and helping protect our connected world.  

H.R. 1158 is critical to keeping our digital networks and communication systems resilient and protected. 

I would like to thank Congressmen Langevin, Ratcliffe, Ruppersberger, and Katko for joining me in introducing this bill.

This bipartisan legislation passed the House last Congress and it is my hope we can get it signed into law this year.

I urge support of this legislation and I yield back the balance of my time.