Security News > 2021 > April > Cyberspace Solarium Commission: CISA Funding Should Increase by at Least $400M
In a letter to the United States House Committee on Appropriations, two members of the Cyberspace Solarium Commission are asking for an increase in funding for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in fiscal year 2022.
Representatives Jim Langevin and Mike Gallagher are pressing for an allocation increase of at least $400 million to the Homeland Security Subcommittee, to support CISA's budget, arguing that the funding is necessary to ensure timely implementation of "Key authorities Congress just passed to strengthen CISA.".
Recent events such as the SolarWinds and Microsoft Exchange Server attacks, the two House representatives say, have led to a significant increase in cyber-activity, with CISA playing a central role in the government's response to both incidents.
While CISA's budget for FY21 has increased by more than $100 million, accompanied by funding through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, the agency will require additional funding for FY22, "To significantly expand non-federal network resilience efforts," the letter reads.
The purpose, the two Solarium Commission members say, is to expand CISA's critical infrastructure sector engagement capacity, to support targeted outreach, to quickly deploy necessary tools to improve visibility across civilian networks, to grow CISA's team for increasing operational resilience in the non-federal space, and to ensure CISA's incident response capabilities can rapidly assist state, local, tribal, and territorial governments, as well as other non-federal partners.
"We recommend an increase of at least $400 million for the FY22 appropriation to respond to these changing requirements," the two members of the Solarium Commission say.