Congress Pushes Through New Cybersecurity Powers

Provision slipped into the NDAA

Lawmakers are poised to greenlight a defense bill that would add millions of dollars to federal cybersecurity programs while requiring contractors to inform the government in the event of a cyberattack.

The conference report on the House and Senate floors Thursday preserves notable increases to Pentagon programs meant to stave off foreign hackers and research new ways to defeat them. But the reconciled 2013 bill also includes new cybersecurity reporting and procurement rules that many in the tech industry are just now reviewing.

The House and Senate are barreling before Christmas toward passage of the National Defense Authorization Act after lawmakers from both chambers huddled for weeks to reconcile significant differences between their bills.

Many of the disputes have focused on thorny political matters like indefinite detention and not technology policy.