Budget request emphasizes cyber, network security efforts
The document provides a peek at how the administration would prioritize cybersecurity spending across DHS, Energy, Treasury and other departments.
The Trump administration's proposed budget for fiscal year 2021 would spend $18.8 billion on cybersecurity programs across the federal government, with approximately $9 billion dedicated to civilian agencies for network security, protecting critical infrastructure, boosting the cybersecurity workforce and other priorities.
The overall cybersecurity funding at the Department of Homeland Security is listed at $2.6 billion. That includes $1.1 billion for DHS and its component, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, to defend government networks and critical infrastructure from cyber threats, including for tools like EINSTEIN and Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation. According to the Office of Management and Budget, the funding would increase the number of DHS-led network risk assessments from 1,800 to 6,500 and allow for more state and local governments to utilize the department's services.
The administration has also put a heavy emphasis on bolstering the government's cybersecurity workforce, releasing an executive order and strategic plan last year. The budget includes funding for DHS' Cyber Talent Management System, a personnel system designed to bring hundreds of new cybersecurity professionals into the federal workforce under special hiring rules, as well as a CISA-managed cybersecurity workforce initiative and an interagency rotational program that temporarily details cyber personnel to other agencies to gain more holistic experience.
It also proposes to transfer the U.S. Secret Service, which investigates a number of cyber-enabled financial crimes, from DHS to the Department of Treasury.
The Department of Energy would get $665 million for cybersecurity, including $185 million for the Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security and Emergency (CESR), part of which would go towards funding early research and development of methods to better protect the energy supply chain. At the same time, the plan would eliminate a number of grant programs and research organizations, such as the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy.
"The private sector has the primary role in taking risks to finance the deployment of commercially viable projects and Government's best use of taxpayer funding is in earlier stage R&D," the budget states.
It would also invest in a number of emerging technologies, setting aside $5 million to stand up Energy's new Artificial Intelligence Technology Office, along with an additional $125 million for AI and machine learning research. Other research funding includes $475 million for the Office of Science supercomputing research and $237 million for quantum computing research.
On securing the supply chain, the budget would set aside $35 million for the Department of Treasury to implement the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act passed in 2018, which created a new layer of review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States for foreign investments in U.S. companies that produce critical technologies. The administration is also implementing the Secure Technologies Act, which created a new Federal Acquisition Supply Chain Security Council charged with developing procurement regulations to prevent U.S. agencies from buying compromised computer parts, components and software.