in recent years we have seen the inability of the Federal Government to quickly adapt to changing technology and emerging threats. In June of 2015 the Office of Personnel Management, OPM, was infiltrated with a major cyber breach, affecting more than 22 million current and former Federal employees, including myself. In January of 2016, another nearly half a million Americans had their social security numbers stolen when the Internal Revenue Service was hacked. I spent 28 years in the private sector, 12 years with a global cloud computing company. We faced cyber threats daily, and our customers expected security of their data. We delivered, not once was our data compromised. Until I came to the Federal Government and received the letters from OPM, my data had been secured too. I know firsthand that industry has the talent and incentive to keep their information systems secure. The Federal Government should continue to innovate and utilize industries' expertise and learn from their best practices. That is why I am introducing the Support for Rapid Innovation Act. This legislation will extend the authorization for the Secretary of Homeland Security to carry out innovative research and development projects that will enhance our Nation's cyber security. It will focus efforts on developing more secure information systems, technologies for detecting and containing attacks in real-time, and develop cyber forensics to identify perpetrators.…
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