House Appropriations Panel Should Step Up Cyber Oversight, Member Urges

The House Appropriations Committee’s homeland security panel should take a far more active role overseeing DHS cyber operations this year, according to a report Representative Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD) sent to fellow committee members.

The report outlines several key areas the panel should focus on, including the threat of adversary nations stealing U.S. government hacking tools, cyber threats against industrial control systems that manage chemical and gas plants and ways to surge information sharing about cyber threats within industry sectors. It also calls for the panel’s first-ever cybersecurity-specific budget hearing.

Ruppersberger was the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee from 2011 to 2015, where he focused extensively on cyber threats.