Bill Proposes Cyber Workforce Reforms

A bipartisan group of lawmakers on Thursday unveiled comprehensive cybersecurity legislation that includes provisions to improve the recruitment and retention of the federal cyber workforce.

Sens. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn.; Susan Collins, R-Maine; and Tom Carper, D-Del.; introduced the bill, which would secure the nation's most sensitive and critical cyber infrastructures and protect Internet freedom, in part by prohibiting the president or any other officer or employee of the government to shut down the Internet.

The bill also includes several provisions that would help the government better recruit, hire, retain and train cybersecurity professionals. It would require the Office of Personnel Management to develop a comprehensive cyber workforce strategy that includes a five-year plan on recruitment of federal cybersecurity personnel and 10- and 20-year projections of workforce needs. It also would require federal agencies to develop a cybersecurity workforce plan that includes hiring projections, recruitment strategies, barriers to recruitment and hiring, a training and development blueprint, and ways to streamline the hiring process for cyber pros.

The bill also would require OPM to create cybersecurity occupation classifications and require federal agencies to measure the effectiveness of recruitment and hiring of cybersecurity workers. And it would beef up current scholarship programs and create a new program to ensure the effective operation of national and statewide cybersecurity competitions.