As Congress negotiates a bill concerning American economic competitiveness, Senators urge inclusion of Sen. Ossoff’s bipartisan Dr. David Satcher Cybersecurity Education Grant Program in final bill
Washington, D.C. –– U.S. Senators Jon Ossoff (D-GA) and Mike Rounds (R-SD) are leading a bipartisan push to expand cybersecurity job training and research capacity at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Tribal Colleges and Universities.
Sens. Ossoff and Rounds, alongside Sens. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and Angus King (I-ME), led a new push to enhance the nation’s cybersecurity workforce by including a key provision of their bipartisan Cybersecurity Opportunity Act in the final bipartisan American economic competitiveness bill.
The Senators are calling for the inclusion of their Dr. David Satcher Cybersecurity Education Grant Program in the final bill, which would expand cybersecurity training programs at HBCUs, MSIs, tribal colleges, and other colleges and universities that serve a high proportion of Pell Grant recipients in Georgia and nationwide.
The proposed grant program is named after the former U.S. Surgeon General and Morehouse School of Medicine Dean Dr. David Satcher.
The legislation would require that at least 50% of grant program funds go to HBCUs, tribal colleges and universities, and minority serving institutions in order to support greater diversity and equality of opportunity in the cybersecurity field.
“This initiative will build a socioeconomically and racially diverse pipeline of tech talent and strengthen American cybersecurity and competitiveness. Now, more than ever, we need to be investing in the next generation of talent that will protect our country and economy from cyber threats,” the Senators wrote.
Last August, the Cybersecurity Opportunity Act passed the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee with bipartisan support, and the bill passed the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this year.
Read Sens. Ossoff and Rounds’s letter here.
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