August Pfluger Bemoans 'Missing' Investment In Rural Areas To Bolster Cyber Workforce Shortages

5 months ago

During a House Homeland Security Committee hearing prior to the Congressional recess, Rep. August Pfluger (R-TX) questioned witnesses about workforce shortages and rural investment.

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00:00from Texas. Mr. Pfluger for five minutes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the witnesses for

00:05being here and talking about this issue. I represent Angela State University. It's a

00:11cyber center of excellence. They've taken steps in partnership with NSA and other government

00:16agencies to start developing the workforce in a way. Here's why this is important to me.

00:23When we think about the areas that provide that type of workforce, I think one of the big areas

00:31that is really missing is rural America. And that's why I'm passionate about what

00:39President Ronnie Hawkins is doing, a former retired three-star general from the Air Force,

00:45led DOD in its effort to transform the cyber side of our warfighting domain. And I'd like to hear

00:54really from each of you, how can a school like Angela State, a rural serving institution with

01:0012 to 14,000 students throughout the entirety of its programs, how can they be successful?

01:08And what's the advice or what's the vector that they need to go and other institutions like them

01:15to provide this workforce for our country? And I'll just start and go down the line.

01:20Absolutely. Thank you, Congressman. And I strongly agree on the importance of

01:24building relationships with rural communities and pathways into public service.

01:30Participating in the NSA Centers for Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity is a great start.

01:35We're a proud partner with the NSA on that program. I would also say for any training

01:40institution right now, recognizing the pace of new developments in this field and ensuring that

01:47we are training our workforce, not on any one specific technology that may be out of date very

01:53quickly, but on how to stay current, how to leverage increased automated and AI-based systems,

02:02and how to really stay on top of new and emerging threats is the most important thing

02:06these organizations can be doing. Thank you. Ms. Beavers?

02:11So, I think leveraging the great work that's being done on the cyber workforce,

02:17frameworks that have been built that actually identify the qualifications and the skills,

02:24and then also exploring opportunities for outreach and fun events that the DOD sponsors,

02:32like hackathons and things like that, to really increase the student body's excitement about

02:43getting involved. And so, I think encouraging internships would be my recommendation.

02:51Which I know that they have focused on that. By the way, they're a minority-serving institution,

02:56mostly Hispanic population that comes from our area in West Texas, and they really are proud of

03:04that work because they're sending good young men and women into the workforce. Mr. Peters?

03:08Yeah, so I'm a product of rural America, so I have a soft spot for what it means. And I would

03:13just add to the discussion about community colleges. Most community colleges are in rural

03:17areas or serving rural populations as well. In addition to the focus of this hearing on the

03:23demand, the 500,000 cybersecurity workers, there are a lot of other demographics that are working

03:28against us, like declining birth rates and, you know, the aging of Americans and the like. So,

03:33we've run a series of webinars this year really focusing on underserved and underrepresented

03:39populations, starting with rural America, because there's lots of universities. We had the chancellor

03:44of the University of North Dakota system speaking about what they're doing across their vast state

03:50that is very rural and a lot of tribal organizations as well. But specifically to the

03:57point, I think there's also a statistic about people tend to stay where they go to college or

04:02where they grow up. So, the pandemic has opened up opportunities for remote work and telework and more

04:08flexible opportunities where they may be able to stay in their rural community but work, you know,

04:13for a company or a government organization across the country. So, I think part of the challenge and

04:18opportunity is to open up also more of those remote opportunities that maybe previously didn't

04:23exist. It's a great point and something that we're also working on, which is extending broadband and

04:29access to these communities and there's several committees doing that. We'll leave you the last

04:34word. Well, I actually met Charlotte from Angelo State. She invited me to join the Mayor's Cup

04:40in San Angelo. I would say I was one of the people who sent her congratulations email when the program

04:46got a CA designation. And the key thing is here is that we need to start elevating people's work.

04:52A lot of people are doing good work. I think the role of ONCD and the White House is to elevate

04:56some of this work so that we can plug them into the ecosystem that they need, right? It's not

05:01about just one institution. I don't want folks at Angelo State to think that they are the only one

05:05that has to do it all on their own. We can plug them into the ecosystem, get private sector

05:10employers involved, get the state and local government involved so we can all do this together.

05:14That's a great point and I hope that if you have not made contact with President Hawkins

05:18and Angelo State that you will because they are doing an amazing job and they're not the only ones

05:23but they also have an Air Force base there, a Goodfellow Air Force base that does intelligence

05:29and a lot of that intelligence has to do with the issues that you're talking about. I know

05:33time has expired. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Gentleman yields back. I now recognize the

05:36gentleman from Michigan, Mr. Tannit.

August Pfluger Bemoans 'Missing' Investment In Rural Areas To Bolster Cyber Workforce Shortages

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