The House also passed the Homeland Security Cybersecurity Boots-on-the-Ground Act in the same measure, which would require DHS to develop cybersecurity occupation categories.
Those categories would be available for use throughout DHS and across other federal agencies, and the bill would require DHS to conduct an annual assessment of the readiness and capacity of the DHS workforce to meet its cybersecurity mission.
The Boots on the Ground Act also contains provisions to maintain better data on the evolving cybersecurity workforce. DHS would need to include in the readiness assessment information on which cybersecuritypositions are performed by permanent full time departmental employees, contractors, and individuals employed by other federal agencies such as the National Security Agency.
The bill also directs DHS to develop acybersecurity workforce strategy, and it authorizes new positions in the excepted service, while providing authority to appoint individuals, fix pay, and pay retention bonuses if needed to retain essential DHS employees who perform functions relating to the security of federal civilian information systems, critical infrastructure information systems, or related networks.