Hank Johnson: “My amendment would help strengthen cybersecurity, improve American competitiveness, and contribute to a more diverse…”

“My amendment would help strengthen cybersecurity, improve American competitiveness, and contribute to a more diverse workplace by creating the David Satcher Cybersecurity Education Grant Program which gives the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology, also known as NIST, the authority to make grants to historically Black colleges and universities and also minority-serving institutions and schools that serve large numbers of Pell Grant receiving students. It would help these students promote cybersecurity education and research. Madam Speaker, we must include more women and minorities so we are maximizing all the tech talent our country has to offer. We are engaged in a cyber war, and we need all hands on deck. HBCUs are doing some of the most sophisticated and technologically advanced work in our Nation, and we should tap into and fully support those institutions to help us win this cyber war. I urge my colleagues to support my amendment when it comes up. I would also recognize the fact that, as I have listened to the debate today on this very important topic, from my friends on the other side of the aisle I have heard a lot of Asian bashing. It is quite dangerous for us to go down that path, stoking the passions of people against other people. This is not about other people.…”