CDM bill passes the House, moves to Senate
A bill proposing to codify the Department of Homeland Security’s signature cybersecurity program passed the House by voice vote Tuesday.
The Advancing Cybersecurity Diagnostics and Mitigation Act seeks to make DHS’s Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation program a systematic requirement for the agency to maintain, calling upon its secretary to craft a CDM strategy within 180 days of enactment.
Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas — who chairs the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection — introduced the bill in July as a way to codify the work the CDM program already has been doing and ensure that it continues under the secretary of Homeland Security and the department’s National Protection and Programs Directorate.
“I’m grateful for the strong, bipartisan support of my House colleagues in passing my CDM codification bill today, and I’m hopeful the Senate will act swiftly to advance this important measure on behalf of our national security,” Ratcliffe said in a statement Tuesday.
DHS has been operating the CDM program since 2012 to serve as a cybersecurity defense platform that both monitors and protects federal networks.
It’s currently in the process of awarding and implementing new contracts as part of its Dynamic and Evolving Federal Enterprise Network Defense (DEFEND) program, which seeks to provide agencies new technologies including network protections for mobile devices and multiple data protection solutions.
In the Senate, the bill will fall under the jurisdiction of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
