Washington, D.C. – U.S. Representative Mike Gallagher (R-WI), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Cyber, Innovative Technologies, and Information, delivered the following opening statement at the subcommittee markup for H.R. 2670 National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024. The Subcommittee's mark is available here.
Rep. Gallagher’s remarks as prepared for delivery:
Today, marks (pun intended) a moment of crucial consensus for our national defense, as we examine the Cyber, Information Technologies, and Innovation policies that will drive the Department of Defense in Fiscal Year 2024.
As chair, I set three fundamental questions to guide this subcommittee throughout the 118th Congress –
- Is the Pentagon prepared for an invasion of Taiwan that has already begun in cyberspace?
- What technologies are most important for winning a future war and what are the barriers to the Department rapidly adopting such technologies?
- Are the Services and the Pentagon sensibly structured and resourced to recruit, train, maintain, and equip cyber warriors?
For five months, we have heard defense leaders in and out of the Department answer these questions, and more importantly offer ideas to accomplish these critical tasks where we currently fall short.
Today, we offer a subcommittee mark that focuses Defense leadership on actually integrating commercial technology—not just developing it—improves their cybersecurity posture through better visibility into networks and endpoints, develops metrics to measure the Department’s success at transitioning technologies, and hardens academic research security from intellectual property thieves, like the Chinese Communist Party.
This mark is the starting place. In the weeks and months to come, we will continue to adapt and improve these policies to build a more resilient and capable military. My goal as chairman of this subcommittee is not to simply admire the problem. The future of conflict is here, and we must give our warfighters the authorities and capabilities necessary to win it. This mark begins doing just that.