Lamar Smith: “And many thanks to my good friend and fellow Texan, Ralph Hall, for bringing H.R. 3834 to the House floor as part of…”

“And many thanks to my good friend and fellow Texan, Ralph Hall, for bringing H.R. 3834 to the House floor as part of cyber-week. Just about every aspect of our lives is somehow connected to the internet in one way or another. My hometown of San Antonio is often referred to as ``Cyber-City USA,'' due to the work of the Air Force, private industry, and the University of Texas at San Antonio's Institute for Cybersecurity. Cyber-crimes risk our personal finances, proprietary business information, and national security know-how. Hackers have sought to physically damage our air traffic control system, DoD and NASA satellites, and electrical grid. Hackers from a variety of countries, especially China and Russia, as well as those working inside the United States, cause a great deal of damage to our nation's economy and national security. The GAO reported this week that cyberattacks on the federal government have exploded by 680 percent in the past five years. The NITRD program is a unique collaboration among Federal research and development agencies that coordinate Federal R&D projects to advance information technologies such as computing, networking, and software, while avoiding duplication of efforts. One of the primary goals of the NITRD program is to accelerate development and deployment of these technologies to maintain American leadership in the IT field.…”