I
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 278
To require the Director of National Intelligence to conduct a study on the
feasibility of establishing a Cyber Defense National Guard.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY11, 2023
Ms. J
ACKSONLEEintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
A BILL
To require the Director of National Intelligence to conduct
a study on the feasibility of establishing a Cyber Defense
National Guard.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Cyber Defense Na-4
tional Guard Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. STUDY ON ESTABLISHMENT OF CYBER DEFENSE 6
NATIONAL GUARD. 7
(a) S
TUDY.—The Director of National Intelligence, 8
in consultation with the Secretary of Defense and the Sec-9
retary of Homeland Security, shall conduct a study on the 10
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•HR 278 IH
feasibility of establishing a Cyber Defense National 1
Guard. 2
(b) C
ONTENTS.—The study required under sub-3
section (a) shall include an analysis of— 4
(1) the cost of creating a Cyber Defense Na-5
tional Guard; 6
(2) the number of persons who would be needed 7
to defend the critical infrastructure of the United 8
States from a cyber attack or manmade intentional 9
or unintentional catastrophic incident; 10
(3) the sources of potential members of a Cyber 11
Defense National Guard, including industry, aca-12
demic institutions, research facilities, and Federal 13
contractors; 14
(4) which elements of the Federal Government 15
would be best equipped to recruit, train, and manage 16
a Cyber Defense National Guard; 17
(5) the criteria required for persons to serve in 18
a Cyber Defense National Guard; 19
(6) if an incident disrupts communications in a 20
region or area, what resources can be pre-positioned 21
and training instilled to assure the effectiveness and 22
responsiveness of a Cyber Defense National Guard; 23
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•HR 278 IH
(7) the minimum requirements for consider-1
ation for inclusion in a Cyber Defense National 2
Guard; 3
(8) the impact of the effectiveness of a Cyber 4
Defense National Guard of the possibility that the 5
population of potential recruits may be dominated by 6
men and women without military, intelligence, law 7
enforcement, or government work experience; 8
(9) the recruitment and vetting costs for a 9
Cyber Defense National Guard; 10
(10) the frequency of cyber defense and unit co-11
hesion training; 12
(11) how well military discipline is able to be 13
adapted for use for creating command and control 14
systems and protocols for a Cyber Defense National 15
Guard; 16
(12) the logistics of allowing governors to use 17
the Cyber Defense National Guard in States during 18
times of cyber emergency; 19
(13) the advantages and disadvantages of cre-20
ating a Cyber Defense National Guard on the cyber 21
security of the United States; and 22
(14) whether a force trained to defend the net-23
works of the United States in the event of a major 24
attack or natural or manmade disaster will benefit 25
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•HR 278 IH
overall efforts to defend the interests of the United 1
States. 2
(c) R
EPORT.— 3
(1) S
UBMISSION.—Not later than 240 days 4
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Di-5
rector of National Intelligence, in consultation with 6
the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of 7
Homeland Security, shall submit to the Committee 8
on Armed Services, the Committee on Homeland Se-9
curity, the Permanent Select Committee on Intel-10
ligence, and the Committee on the Judiciary of the 11
House of Representatives and the Committee on 12
Armed Services, the Committee on Homeland Secu-13
rity and Governmental Affairs, the Select Committee 14
on Intelligence, and the Committee on the Judiciary 15
of the Senate a report containing the results of the 16
study required under subsection (a). 17
(2) F
ORM.—The report required under para-18
graph (1) shall be submitted in unclassified form, 19
but may include a classified annex. 20
Æ
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