House defense policy bill okays $10.4 billion for DoD cybersecurity

The House version of the annual defense policy bill backs the Biden administration's proposed $10.4 billion cybersecurity budget for the Defense Department next year, according to an aide for the panel’s Democratic majority

"We support the President's budget request,” the aide said, adding that the annual National Defense Authorization Act provides additional investment for the protection of the Pentagon’s information systems. A summary of the bill shows an additional $50 million for such work.

The document, dubbed the “chairman’s mark,” serves as the foundation for the committee’s marathon markup of the $716 billion spending blueprint scheduled for Wednesday.

The Pentagon requested a total of $50.6 billion in information technology and cyberspace activities funding for fiscal 2022. The $10.4 billion budget request includes $5.5 billion for cybersecurity, $4.3 billion for cyberspace operations and $510.9 million in research and development funding.

The topline cybersecurity figure also includes $605 million for U.S. Cyber Command’s general budget. 

That is the same amount the Senate Armed Services Committee allocated in its draft of the policy roadmap, according to an executive summary of that legislation, the text of which has yet to be released.

The House bill also greenlights Cyber Command’s Cyber Mission Force — a cadre of roughly 6,200 personnel culled from the military branches and divided into 133 teams — to grow by four units in the coming year, the first time expansion since its structure was set in 2012.

The committee aide said that “one of the more impactful” provisions in the proposed legislation would establish a new program office within Joint Force Headquarters Department of Defense Information Networks “to centralize management of cyber threat information products.