HR 278 Introduced - Cyber Defense National Guard
Earlier this month, Rep Jackson-Lee introduced HR 278, the Cyber Defense National Guard Act. The bill would require the Director of National Intelligence to conduct a study on “the feasibility of establishing a Cyber Defense National Guard”. No funding is authorized by this legislation.
The language of this bill is identical to HR 119 that was introduced in the 117th Congress. There was no committee action on that bill in the last session.
The Study
The DNI would consult with DOD and DHS to produce the required study within 240 days of the bill being enacted. A report to Congress on the study would be published in unclassified form, but a classified annex could be included. The items to be addressed in the study would include:
The cost of creating a Cyber Defense National Guard,
The number of persons who would be needed to defend the critical infrastructure of the United States from a cyber-attack or manmade intentional or unintentional catastrophic incident,
The sources of potential members of a Cyber Defense National Guard, including industry, academic institutions, research facilities, and Federal contractors,
Which elements of the Federal Government would be best equipped to recruit, train, and manage a Cyber Defense National Guard,
The criteria required for persons to serve in a Cyber Defense National Guard,
The impact of the effectiveness of a Cyber Defense National Guard of the possibility that the population of potential recruits may be dominated by men and women without military, intelligence, law enforcement, or government work experience,
The recruitment and vetting costs for a Cyber Defense National Guard,
How well military discipline is able to be adapted for use for creating command and control systems and protocols for a Cyber Defense National Guard,
The logistics of allowing governors to use the Cyber Defense National Guard in States during times of cyber emergency,
The advantages and disadvantages of creating a Cyber Defense National Guard on the cyber security of the United States, and
Whether a force trained to defend the networks of the United States in the event of a major attack or natural or manmade disaster will benefit overall efforts to defend the interests of the United States.
Moving Forward
Jackson-Lee has not yet received any Committee assignments. This means that it is too early to determine if she would have sufficient influence to see the bill considered in the House Intelligence Committee, the committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration. Since this is a report only bill, I see nothing that would engender any organized opposition. I suspect that the bill would receive some level of bipartisan support if it were considered in committee.
Commentary
While it would seem odd that the DNI is tasked with the conduct of a study on the expansion of the National Guard, I think we can see the reason for that in the language of §2(b)(8):
“(8) the impact of the effectiveness of a Cyber Defense National Guard of the possibility that the population of potential recruits may be dominated by men and women without military, intelligence, law enforcement, or government work experience;”
The organization that Jackson-Lee envisions is not directly intended to be another branch of the NG, but probably an extension of the National Security Agency/Cyber Command with some level of support for State level cybersecurity operations. That would be an interesting construct, but I think that a direct integration with the National Guard Bureau would provide for some level of administrative and logistic support that would have to be stood up for a stand-alone cyber national guard agency.