Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., the newly installed chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said he wants to help the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) strengthen its role as an “information enabler,” but at the same time said he is wary of the agency taking more of a “regulatory approach” to its mission.
The House Homeland Security chairman staked out that position on Feb. 2 following a meeting with CISA Director Jen Easterly that the congressman described as “constructive.”
“The federal government has enough regulators and I remain concerned over the Biden administration’s aggressive regulatory approach. My mission will be to strengthen CISA as an information enabler rather than as a regulatory agency,” stated Rep. Green.
“We are not here to overly burden industry, but we are here to ensure companies are doing their part to secure their systems and protect against the cascading and devastating impact one vulnerability can have on an entire network,” stated Green.
Regulatory perceptions aside, Rep. Green said his committee’s goal will be to “best position CISA to execute its preexisting authorities and requirements to strengthen the cybersecurity of Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) and private sector networks.”
The two also discussed the importance of working closely together to bolster critical infrastructure security.
“Director Easterly and I had a constructive conversation on how we will continue the Homeland Security Committee’s momentum in protecting our nation’s cyber assets against current and future threats,” stated Rep. Green.
“While the intelligence community has made clear that malicious foreign adversaries will continue to pose significant cyber threats to our critical infrastructure, we aim to approach cyber resilience from a proactive posture,” he said. Rep. Green said he wants to create a “very productive partnership with Director Easterly as we work to identify and patch the gaps in our nation’s cyber infrastructure.”
