'An Absolute Need': Morgan Luttrell Touts State And Local Cybersecurity Grant Programs

2 days ago

During a House Homeland Security Committee hearing, Rep. Morgan Luttrell (R-TX) questioned witnesses about local awareness of cybersecurity grant programs, and their impact on national security.

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00:00called after all members have been recognized. I now recognize the gentleman from Texas, Mr.

00:04Luttrell, for five minutes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Raymond, when it comes to local governments

00:08and their awareness of the grant programs and where they live and breathe or where they exist,

00:12how does that work? Does the government itself reach down into these local governments and

00:17which ones are we touching? Are we touching all of them? Thank you for the question,

00:22Representative. They're all invited to the discussion. We have formed regional subcommittees

00:28that include representatives from state, local, school districts. When you say regional

00:34subcommittees, can you elaborate on that, please? Yeah. Connecticut is divided into

00:39five administrative regions. So we do not have county government in Connecticut. So it's just

00:46the state and then 169 municipalities. So we have organized our emergency response into five

00:53districts. And so each one of those emergency management and cybersecurity groups have their

00:58own planning committee that is all of the chief executives and emergency management and

01:04cybersecurity professionals in that group are invited to the table in those discussions. So

01:08it makes it easier for the state to understand what exactly is happening in cybersecurity when

01:12it comes to the grant profile. Yes, sir. Mr. Cramer, you got something to add to that?

01:17Louisville is the largest city in the state of Kentucky. We do have counties in the commonwealth

01:23and the grant that we are currently using came directly to metro government in Louisville.

01:29Is every county aware of the grant system itself and how they can grab a hold of that?

01:41Those that are members of NACO, the National Association of Counties, are well aware because

01:46NACO is pushing this out as an issue that they should be very much interested in working with.

01:52In Louisville, it's not just Louisville that's taking advantage of the grant, though. We're the

01:57largest city in the state. We're also very near being on the river, very near Indiana. We are

02:02working across the entire region. We've reached out to the universities, both the University of

02:07Kentucky and the University of Louisville. We're working with the National Guard. And so it's a

02:12program that goes beyond just what we're doing in Louisville. It captures a good part of our

02:17state. Mr. Fowler. Excuse me. Yes. So in the state of Utah, what we're doing is tools. The

02:25city of Utah? State of Utah. Okay. Tools, training, and relationship building. And so we're over 75%

02:35covered with all the cities and counties, and we hope to get that closer to 100% as we go.

02:40The entire state is aware of this. Oh, yeah. That's remarkable. Mr. Hubbard.

02:46I have no comment. That's outside my area of expertise. I rely on these gentlemen. I'm a vendor.

02:53Welcome to the committee, sir. When it comes to state and so the relationship between state and

02:58local government, would you say that the return on the investment from these grant programs are

03:03beneficial? And I'll start with you, Mr. Ramby, because you said that you did not utilize all

03:09the assets that were funded amidst the year. We had double the requests than we were able to fund.

03:19So we did not have any excess funds. We had double the requests in the first year of the grant

03:26program, and we expect that to continue. So I think that does demonstrate both the awareness

03:33that we have across the state, especially for our municipalities, and upwards. We took very

03:41little funding at the state level. There is a division between what you can take at the state

03:47level and what is, and almost all of the funds went to local governments. But absolutely necessary,

03:54because this committee is trying to maintain its footing when it comes to grant programs for

03:59cyber security, cyber risk, cyber threat. We need to hear from those on the other side to say, yes,

04:04this is an absolute need, because in my personal opinion, this is the next phase of evolution when

04:09it comes to warfare. So, and protecting our citizens is absolute. And as the metaverse is

04:17pulling, pulling or cutting or freezing grant programs currently, I would hate to see this

04:23happen in such an important space. Yeah. Mr. Kramer, did I go to you? If not, Mr. Fuller.

04:29Thank you. I would argue that yes, it is essential. We, in Louisville, we hired two people to do the

04:36work. We were hoping for four. The work that needs to be done is broader than the work we're able to

04:41accomplish under the current program. So absolutely want to see this go forward. The plan is to reach

04:49out again to the major universities in town, and then ultimately to filter down even to the public

04:55school systems. It's amazing how much data is held in the school systems and how much that data is

05:01compromised. And as everyone knows, you know, the bad actors are looking for the easy access.

05:07And so we're doing our best to reach down to the level where we can improve security at that lowest

05:13level. Mr. Chairman, I yield back. Thank you.

'An Absolute Need': Morgan Luttrell Touts State And Local Cybersecurity Grant Programs

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