This week, Chairman Andrew R. Garbarino of the House Committee on Homeland Security discussed recent cybersecurity legislation during an interview with Bloomberg’s “Balance of Power.” The House of Representatives passed two key bills aimed at strengthening the nation’s cyber defenses.
Chairman Garbarino emphasized the growing threat from foreign adversaries and the need for a coordinated national response to protect critical infrastructure. He highlighted the “Protecting Information by Local Leaders for Agency Resilience Act” (PILLAR Act), introduced by Subcommittee Chairman Andy Ogles and cosponsored by Garbarino. This bill is designed to give state, local, tribal, and territorial governments more resources to secure their networks.
Another measure, the “Strengthening Cyber Resilience Against State-Sponsored Threats Act,” seeks to improve interagency coordination against increasing cyber threats from countries such as China. According to Garbarino, “It’s actually going to help us streamline our response to these attacks by other our foreign adversaries…Now, our cyber border is a new battlefield, and [we need to be] making sure that the FBI, CISA, other federal agencies are sharing information, and sharing it also with the private sector so we can we can protect against these foreign adversaries, especially when it comes to attacks on our critical infrastructure.”
He added: “I’m so proud this bill passed, hopefully the Senate moves it. So, we can streamline our response to the thousands and thousands of attacks that we see every day from foreign actors in the likes of China, Russia, you know, North Korea.”
Discussing artificial intelligence in cybersecurity operations, Garbarino said: “We’ve seen AI being used by the bad guys in cyberattacks for years now, but this was the most aggressive use, and it is very concerning that it could just get worse. So, one thing I’ve been talking about with the private sector, you know, 85 percent of our critical infrastructure is held by the private sector, controlled by the private sector, is if the bad guys are going to be using AI to attack us, we should be using AI…in our cyber defenses because it’s not going to be possible to fight this aggressive use of AI and cyberattacks by just human intervention and defense alone. So, we have to step up our game.”
On supporting local governments through grants provided in the PILLAR Act he stated: “Our state, local governments, municipalities, counties, mayors, the cities—they don’t have the money. They don’t have the expertise even though they also control a lot of critical infrastructure. So this grant program is a continuation of one that’s been going on. We’ll help these local governments stay protected because they need it. And I think this year we’ve said 44 states have been hit by cyberattacks. So we need to prepare them so they can defend against these cyberattacks as well…we’re very proud of the two pieces of legislation passed the House this week.”
The PILLAR Act would reauthorize and expand a Department of Homeland Security grant program that helps non-federal governments address cybersecurity risks related both to information systems and operational technology systems.
Supporters of this bill include organizations such as Alliance for Digital Innovation (ADI), American Public Works Association (APWA), Armis Security Inc., Business Software Alliance (BSA), National Association of Counties (NACo), National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), Palo Alto Networks Inc., TechNet Group LLC., Tenable Holdings Inc., Wiz Inc., Zscaler Inc., among others.
The Strengthening Cyber Resilience Against State-Sponsored Threats Act would create an interagency task force led by CISA and FBI focused on countering state-sponsored threats associated with entities like China’s Communist Party. The task force must deliver annual classified reports and briefings on its findings regarding malicious activity linked to such actors for five years.
Both bills were advanced out of committee earlier in 2025 before passing in bipartisan votes in Congress.
