Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said he plans to require the creation of a Senate-confirmed director role for national cybersecurity and wants the proposal to be included in the National Defense Authorization Act, Nextgov reported Wednesday.
“The first recommendation I want to talk about which we’re working hard to get hopefully included in the defense authorization act so it can become law, is the need to put somebody in charge, a national cyber director,” Johnson said.
The creation of the national cyber director was one of the recommendations of the National Cyberspace Solarium Commission. Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), a co-chair of the commission, appeared before the Senate panel Wednesday and discussed how the office of the national cyber chief would differ from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
“The national cyber director would have a more coordinating function that is making sure that CISA, in performing that mission is also working well with NSA, with Cybercom, and all the other federal agencies that play in the cyber space,” Gallagher said.
