Jim Langevin: “I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I want to recognize and thank the gentleman from Texas for his leadership on…”

“I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I want to recognize and thank the gentleman from Texas for his leadership on this issue as well as for his leadership as chairman of the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection. As the cofounder and co-chair of the Congressional Cybersecurity Caucus, which I have co-led for a decade with my good friend Chairman McCaul, I firmly believe that cybersecurity is the national and economic security issue of the 21st century. I believe it is, therefore, incumbent upon us as Members of Congress to enable the government to take the steps needed to protect our systems and to provide some course correction when necessary. This bill does both, authorizing the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation, or CDM, program and requiring a strategy from the Department of Homeland Security to guide its future growth. CDM represents a core component of the Department's efforts to better secure the dot-gov domain. In particular, by giving agencies a better view into their networks, systems, and data, it helps provide an understanding of cybersecurity status in real time. It also feeds back data to DHS, so that cybersecurity specialists at the National Protection and Programs Directorate can better assist agencies in closing vulnerabilities and responding to incidents. Conceptually, CDM makes a lot of sense, but it has not been without challenges in implementation.…”