Sba Cyber Awareness Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. CROW. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 3462, the bipartisan SBA Cyber Awareness Act.

The Small Business Administration supports small businesses in every corner of the country. With the support of Congress, the SBA has gone to bat for small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic through relief programs like PPP and EIDL. Yet, year after year, the SBA's Office of Inspector General has found that IT security is one of the agency's most serious management and performance challenges.

The pandemic highlighted the gaps in the agency's cybersecurity. As a result of high demand, a glitch in the EIDL application exposed the personal information of over 8,000 applicants.

We need to bolster the SBA's cybersecurity so that the SBA can better protect small businesses' information and continue to help small businesses nationwide.

My bill, the SBA Cyber Awareness Act, would direct the SBA to issue an annual report on the agency's cybersecurity strategy, as well as disclosure of recent threats and breaches. Under this bill, the SBA would also report on its supply chain risk management strategy and issue a plan to address the risks of foreign manufactured information technology used by the agency, including components originating from the People's Republic of China.

This bill passed the Senate by unanimous consent, and a similar version passed the House of Representatives unopposed last year in November 2021.

I thank the bill's Republican co-lead, Representative Young Kim, for her support, as well as Chairwoman Velazquez, Ranking Member Luetkemeyer, and the staff of the Small Business Committee, all of whom have been critical in advancing this measure.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me again in supporting this commonsense bill to support SBA cybersecurity.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source