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CLOSING THE TALENT GAP IN FEDERAL IT 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON 

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT 

AND GOVERNMENT REFORM 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS 

SECOND SESSION 

SEPTEMBER 22, 2016 

Serial No. 114–160 

Printed for the use of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform 

( 

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.fdsys.gov 

http://www.house.gov/reform 


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COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND GOVERNMENT REFORM 

JASON CHAFFETZ, Utah, Chairman 

JOHN L. MICA, Florida 

MICHAEL R. TURNER, Ohio 

JOHN J. DUNCAN, JR., Tennessee 

JIM JORDAN, Ohio 

TIM WALBERG, Michigan 

JUSTIN AMASH, Michigan 

PAUL A. GOSAR, Arizona 

SCOTT DESJARLAIS, Tennessee 

TREY GOWDY, South Carolina 

BLAKE FARENTHOLD, Texas 

CYNTHIA M. LUMMIS, Wyoming 

THOMAS MASSIE, Kentucky 

MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina 

RON DESANTIS, Florida 

MICK, MULVANEY, South Carolina 

KEN BUCK, Colorado 

MARK WALKER, North Carolina 

ROD BLUM, Iowa 

JODY B. HICE, Georgia 

STEVE RUSSELL, Oklahoma 

EARL L. ‘‘BUDDY’’ CARTER, Georgia 

GLENN GROTHMAN, Wisconsin 

WILL HURD, Texas 

GARY J. PALMER, Alabama 

ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS, Maryland, Ranking 

Minority Member 

CAROLYN B. MALONEY, New York 

ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON, District of 

Columbia 

WM. LACY CLAY, Missouri 

STEPHEN F. LYNCH, Massachusetts 

JIM COOPER, Tennessee 

GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia 

MATT CARTWRIGHT, Pennsylvania 

TAMMY DUCKWORTH, Illinois 

ROBIN L. KELLY, Illinois 

BRENDA L. LAWRENCE, Michigan 

TED LIEU, California 

BONNIE WATSON COLEMAN, New Jersey 

STACEY E. PLASKETT, Virgin Islands 

MARK DESAULNIER, California 

BRENDAN F. BOYLE, Pennsylvania 

PETER WELCH, Vermont 

MICHELLE LUJAN GRISHAM, New Mexico 

JENNIFER HEMINGWAY, Staff Director 

SEAN BREBBIA, Senior Counsel 

WILLIAM MARX, Clerk 

DAVID RAPALLO, Minority Staff Director 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

WILL HURD, Texas, Chairman 

BLAKE FARENTHOLD, Texas, Vice Chair 

MARK WALKER, North Carolina 

ROD BLUM, Iowa 

PAUL A. GOSAR, Arizona 

ROBIN L. KELLY, Illinois, Ranking Member 

GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia 

TAMMY DUCKWORTH, Illinois 

TED LIEU, California 


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C O N T E N T S 

Page 

Hearing held on September 22, 2016 ..................................................................... 1 

WITNESSES 

Dr. Joan Ferrini-Mundy, Assistant Director, Education and Human Resources, National Science Foundation 

Oral Statement ................................................................................................. 2 

Written Statement ............................................................................................ 4 

Mr. Scott Montgomery, Vice President and Chief Technical Strategist, Intel 

Security 

Oral Statement ................................................................................................. 13 

Written Statement ............................................................................................ 16 

Mr. Gene Bowman, Executive Director, Alamo Academies 

Oral Statement ................................................................................................. 24 

Written Statement ............................................................................................ 26 

Mr. Emile Cambry, Founder, Blue1647 

Oral Statement ................................................................................................. 57 

Written Statement ............................................................................................ 60 

APPENDIX 

Opening Statement of Ranking Member Kelly ..................................................... 76 

Statement for the Record submitted by The Computing Technology Industry 

Association ............................................................................................................ 78 


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CLOSING THE TALENT GAP IN FEDERAL IT 

Thursday, September 22, 2016 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, 

COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND GOVERNMENT REFORM, 

Washington, D.C. 

The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 3:27 p.m., in Room 

2154, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Will Hurd [chairman of 

the subcommittee] presiding. 

Present: Representatives Hurd, Kelly, and Connolly. 

Mr. HURD. The Subcommittee on Information Technology will 

come to order. And without objection, the chair is authorized to declare a recess at any time. 

We are going to be a little pressed for time today. We are going 

to have a hard stop before votes come out. And so with that, I am 

going to submit my opening statement for the record so that we 

can get to the reason why we are here, and that is to talk to our 

great panel that we have today. 

Mr. HURD. And I am going to hold the record open for five legislative days for any members who would like to submit a written 

statement. 

I want to recognize our panel of witnesses. I am pleased to welcome Dr. Joan Ferrini-Mundy, the assistant director of Education 

and Human Resources at the National Science Foundation; Mr. 

Scott Montgomery, vice president and chief technical strategist at 

Intel Security; Mr. Gene Bowman executive director of Alamo 

Academies and from my hometown of San Antonio; and Emile 

Cambry, the founder of BLUE1647. 

And welcome to you all. And pursuant to committee rules, all 

witnesses will be sworn in before they testify. So please rise and 

raise your right hands. 

[Witnesses sworn.] 

Mr. HURD. Thank you. Please be seated. 

Let the record reflect the witnesses answered in the affirmative. 

And in order to allow time for discussion, please limit your testimony to five minutes, and your entire written statement will be 

part of the record. 

And again, thank you for being here on such an important issue 

of closing the talent gap in Federal IT. In my 21 months, this is 

the one thing I have heard consistently as a problem not only in 

the government but in the private sector, and it is great to have 

such a distinguished panel here to talk about this and also advocate some ways that we can help work together and solve this problem. 


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And with that, I would like to recognize Dr. Ferrini-Mundy for 

your opening remarks. 

WINTNESS STATEMENTS 

STATEMENT OF JOAN FERRINI–MUNDY 

Ms. FERRINI-MUNDY. Good afternoon, Chairman Hurd, Ranking 

Member Kelly, and other distinguished members of the Subcommittee on Information Technology. My name is Joan FerriniMundy, and I’m the National Science Foundation’s assistant director for Education and Human Resources. Thank you so much for 

the opportunity to testify before you today on this critical topic for 

our nation, the preparation of a workforce to provide our nation’s 

cybersecurity. 

The directorate that I lead has a unique and crucial mission at 

a science agency within the Federal Government; that is, supporting the preparation of a diverse, globally competent science, 

technology, engineering, and mathematics—or STEM—workforce 

and a STEM-literate citizenry. We do this by providing grants to 

research and education organizations and institutions across the 

country to support innovation in STEM education to build capacity 

in STEM education for diverse students and to do research and 

evaluation of those efforts. 

Our funding supports both formal education and education outside the formal system, for example, work in museums, public television programming, and other public engagement. And in addition, we fund very important programs for scholarships and fellowships. 

Our education investments are closely related to the National 

Science Foundation’s research investments, particularly in the area 

of secure and trustworthy computing where we fund leading researchers in cybersecurity areas from cryptanalysis to cyber physical systems to social networking and more. 

Today, I’ll focus on just a few of the NSF programs that help to 

build the Nation’s workforce for information technology and 

cybersecurity. Specifically, NSF’s CyberCorps Scholarship for Service, or SFS program, was launched in 2001. We coordinate closely 

with the Office of Personnel Management and with the Department 

of Homeland Security to continue to recruit and educate the next 

generation of cybersecurity professionals broadly defined. 

SFS makes awards to institutions of higher education to provide 

scholarships to undergraduate and graduate students in strong 

academic programs in cybersecurity and to develop and enhance 

those cybersecurity programs so that they can remain at the cutting edge and of the highest quality. 

Students may be supported for up to three years, and in return, 

they agree to take cybersecurity positions in local, State, tribal, or 

Federal Government for the same duration as their scholarships. 

To date, the overall placement in cybersecurity-related positions 

for SFS graduates in government is 94 percent. As of last month, 

there were 62 active SFS institutions, nearly 3,000 scholarship recipients over the 16 years of the program, over 2,000 graduates, 

and over 600 current scholarship-holders. 


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NSF’s Advanced Technological Education, or ATE, program also 

has a very strong presence in information technology and 

cybersecurity education. That program makes competitive awards 

to community colleges that partner with other academic institutions and with local industry to education science and engineering 

students for technician positions. These are students at the undergraduate and secondary school levels. ATE funds comprehensive 

centers which may have either a national or regional focus, and 

currently, they are supporting six large cybersecurity-focused centers that serve the entire nation. 

NSF also supports the development of a high technology workforce for the Nation at the undergraduate and graduate levels 

through several other programs, including the Research Experiences for Undergraduates program, which offers intensive summer 

research experiences in all areas of STEM, including cybersecurity. 

Taking a longer view, NSF aims to fund projects that inspire Kthrough-12 students to consider high technology and cybersecurity 

careers. The SFS program has partnered with the National Security Agency to offer summer camps for K-through-12 students and 

teachers to build the pipeline. 

And to help provide better access to computer science at the Kthrough-12 level, NSF has taken on a leading role in the Computer 

Science for All initiative with a commitment of $120 million over 

the next five years. Introduction to computational thinking and to 

elements of computer science at the K-through-12 level can help 

lay groundwork for the wider range of career choices later on. 

Finally, NSF partners with other Federal agencies in 

cybersecurity education through the activities of the National 

Science and Technology Council Committee on STEM Education, 

the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education, and the 

Cybersecurity National Action Plan. 

Thank you so much for the opportunity to testify today on a topic 

that we at the NSF see as critical for our nation’s future. I will be 

pleased to answer any questions that you and the other members 

of the committee may have. 

[Prepared statement of Ms. Ferrini-Mundy follows:] 


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Mr. HURD. Well, Dr. Ferrini-Mundy, I have got to say, we have 

only been doing this for five minutes, you have already gotten me 

excited about a couple of things that you mentioned in your opening remarks. 

And also, I want to add I was a beneficiary of an NSF program 

when I was in high school. I got to do an internship at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio in robotics, and that got me 

excited about computer science, and that is why I studied computer 

science at Texas A&M University. So I am a big fan of what you 

all do. And this is something that I want to make sure more kids 

like me have access to this. So thank you for being here. 

Mr. Montgomery, you are now recognized for five minutes. 

STATEMENT OF SCOTT MONTGOMERY 

Mr. MONTGOMERY. Good afternoon, Chairman Hurd and members of the committee. Thank you for the opportunity to testify 

today. My name is Scott Montgomery. I’m the vice president and 

chief technical strategist of the Intel Security Group, and my testimony will focus on cybersecurity skills gap and what the government, in collaboration with the private sector, can do to close it. 

I’ve been—I’ve spent 20 years building, designing, testifying—or, 

excuse me, testing and certifying information security and privacy 

solutions for a variety of public and private sector organizations. 

Intel is a global leader in computing innovation, designing and 

building the essential foundational technologies that support the 

world’s computing devices. When you combine this experience with 

Intel Security’s market-leading cybersecurity solutions, we bring a 

unique understanding of the challenges threatening our nation’s 

digital infrastructure and global e-commerce. 

Despite facing an ever-changing threat landscape, further complicated by the sharp rise in Internet-enabled devices in our personal lives, the job for security practitioners hasn’t changed: Protect vital services and data from theft, manipulation, and loss due 

to external and internal adversaries. We do, however, need to 

change the way we do our job by focusing on ways to reduce security fragmentation, automate tasks, and force multiply capabilities. 

Organizations both in the public as well as private sector are 

now more vulnerable in more places. Adversaries are increasingly 

capable of commandeering strategic assets and including the critical infrastructure, yet most organizations still lack the resources 

necessary to adequately monitor their networks and defend against 

these sophisticated attacks. 

Earlier this year, the Center for Strategic and International 

Studies, in partnership with Intel Security, released ‘‘Hacking the 

Skills Shortage,’’ a global report outlining the global talent crisis. 

The results of the research were both stunning and informative. 

A majority of respondents—82 percent—admitted to having a 

shortage of cybersecurity skills, with 71 percent citing this shortage 

as having a direct and measurable impact upon their organization 

and making them more valuable hacking targets. 

In 2015 alone, 209,000 cybersecurity jobs went unfilled in the 

United States, in just the United States. Despite 1 in 4 respondents confirming their organizations have lost proprietary data as a 

result of this specific skills gap, there are no signs that this workVerDate Nov 24 2008 09:37 Jul 13, 2017 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00017 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 H:\26069.TXT APRIL

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force shortage will abate in the near term. Respondents estimated 

an average of 15 percent of their company’s available cybersecurity 

positions could go fully unfilled by 2020. 

If the demand for these professionals continues to outpace the 

supply of qualified workers, the United States will face a deficit of 

around one million workers in the next five to ten years. With expanding attack surfaces and an increasing advanced targeted attacks around the world, the need for a technically stronger and numerically increased cyber workforce is critical. 

So one of the immediate steps we can take to address this issue, 

in addition to many other sound policy recommendations, the President’s Cybersecurity National Action Plan, CNAP, calls for a $62 

million increase in spending to expand training and educational 

programs. Specifically, the plan would build out the existing 

CyberCorps Scholarship for Service program, which provides cyber 

education scholarships in exchange for service in the Federal civilian government. This investment is a great step forward, but we 

need to be prepared to do a lot more. 

In particular, we recommend an even larger financial investment 

in existing Federal workforce and education programs, a diversity 

of career paths for interested students, and stronger coordination 

on these initiatives with the private sector and industry. 

As Intel Security vice president and general manager Chris 

Young and Chairman Hurd have both urged in the past, the government should consider the creation of a Cyber National Guard 

program. The CyberCorps Scholarship for Service and reserve programs are ideally situated for students looking to pay back their 

scholarships up front with two or three years in Federal service. 

Also, at the State or Federal level, an expanded SFS or SFS-style 

grant program could train and educate a new class of cyber practitioners prepared to serve their government on a full-time, parttime, or as-needed basis while gaining critical experience with the 

latest private sector innovations. 

The private sector must also be prepared to level-up its collaboration with the government to ensure a steady supply of worthwhile 

internships, co-ops, and training opportunities. In the CSIS report, 

a lack of quality training opportunities was cited as a significant 

reason why cyber practitioners seek alternative employment. For 

this reason, it is not only imperative that public sector entities 

compensate their cyber professionals well but also provide ample 

opportunities for employees to learn new skills and train on cutting-edge technologies. 

Intel supports these efforts through a number of initiatives, including investments in STEM education for women and girls, curriculum development, a robust paid internship program, and partnerships with universities like Purdue, the University of Massachusetts, and the U.S. Air Force Academy. 

Finally, investing in more efficient technologies and modernizing 

outdated IT systems will reduce the burden on scarce human resources. The CNAP prioritizes this by calling for a $3.1 billion IT 

modernization fund to transform cybersecurity management. This 

initiative has received some congressional support with the introduction and successful markup of the MOVE IT Act, which would 

enable retirement, replacement, and modernization of legacy IT 


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that is difficult to secure and expensive to maintain, and reward 

government departments and agencies who go through harvesting 

money back out of their programs. 

Building out these education and workforce initiatives, in tandem with investments in more efficient cyber technologies, will 

make a vital down payment toward closing the cybersecurity skills 

gap. 

I would like to once again thank this distinguished panel for giving me the opportunity to discuss these challenges and strongly believe that public-private collaboration will continue to be our best 

defense. Thank you. 

[Prepared statement of Mr. Montgomery follows:] 


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Mr. HURD. Thank you, Mr. Montgomery, and thank you for the 

reference of the MOVE IT Act, which we had to rename the MGT 

Act, which passed this morning by the way, and that is a pretty 

significant thing and it was because of the great leadership of folks 

like Robin Kelly to make that happen. 

And I also want to thank your organization and Ms. Kelly because this idea of a Cyber National Guard really sunk in with me 

at our field hearing in Chicago. And I am glad we went and did 

that, and I am glad, through you all’s participation, and it really 

is what—you know, that kind of collaboration outside the Beltway 

with, you know, participants, you know, outside the government 

where you really get some of these cutting-edge ideas. So thank 

you for that. 

Mr. Bowman, welcome. Did you bring me any breakfast tacos? 

Mr. BOWMAN. I should have. I ate them. Sorry. 

Mr. HURD. Well, Mr. Bowman, you are now recognized for your 

opening remarks for five minutes. 

STATEMENT OF GENE BOWMAN 

Mr. BOWMAN. Thank you very much. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I’m pleased to be here today speaking to you 

on behalf of the Alamo Academies. 

The Academies are an outstanding program providing opportunities and clear pathways for young men and women to achieve their 

American dream. I would like to briefly describe the model, then 

spend the remainder of the time sharing a few stories of our successful graduates who are today closing the talent gap in the Federal IT career field, as well in the private sector. 

The Alamo Academies is an innovative STEM—you heard it before, science, technology, engineering, mathematics—demand-based 

model connecting high school juniors and seniors with employers. 

These students earn 30 college credits at no personal cost, they obtain nationally recognized industry certificates, and they participate in an experiential learning environment between their junior 

and senior summer, a paid internship, the program’s key component kind of like what you did earlier in your career, where they 

have the opportunity during this internship to apply the knowledge 

and skills they learned in the college classroom in a real-world environment leading to high-wage jobs or further higher education 

while addressing critical workforce needs. 

And let me tell you about five of our graduates who are cyber 

warriors today. Two of them are 22, one is 19, and the other two 

are 18 years old, and all five share the following experiences. They 

participated in the Academy’s Information Technology Security 

Academy. They completed paid internships with cybersecurity industry partners. They all have earned multiple national industry 

certificates. They all competed in the Air Force Association’s 

CyberPatriot competition. They were all on the Academy’s team 

that won the local mayor’s Cyber Cup competition as the best 

CyberPatriot team in the San Antonio region. And each of their 

teams also made it to the top 12 in the Nation and competed in 

the CyberPatriot National Championship in Washington, D.C. 

As a side note and bragging a little bit, the Academy’s team has 

won the mayor’s Cyber Cup and advanced the national champions 


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competition five out of the last six years. Two of these young men, 

Mario and Robert, were on the National Championship Team in 

2012. Both Mario and Robert and the other 14 members accomplished their paid internship with the Department of Defense at 

the Air Force’s 33rd Network Warfare Squadron as entry-level security analysts. Each was awarded a secret clearance at 17 years 

of age and also offered part-time employment during their senior 

year helping defend our nation. 

At 22, Mario already has six years of intense cybersecurity experience supporting DOD initiatives, and shortly after graduation 

from the Academies, Mario was offered a position at the Pentagon 

right down the road here as a computer network defense analyst 

with an interim top-secret SCI clearance. He recently returned to 

San Antonio as a lead cybersecurity analyst with a DOD contractor 

supporting the Air Force’s Weapon and Tactics Team known as the 

Computer Emergency Response Team, which I know you’re familiar with. 

Mario has also added recruiter to his duties. He recruited two of 

our recent graduates to be part of our Cyber Warrior talent pipeline. These two graduates, Reed and Kyle, are both 18. They’re 

CyberPatriot national finalists, completed paid internships with 

cybersecurity industry partners, and are starting their careers as 

tier II security analysts. 

Finally, two other examples, Skylar and Robert, Skylar is 19 

years old, CyberPatriot national finalist—seeing a theme here— 

and is employed as a security analyst with the same cybersecurity 

consulting agency in San Antonio that he accomplished his paid internship with, a smart move by that company, growing their own 

workforce. 

Robert, 22, has taken his cybersecurity talent into the private 

sector. He’s a security analyst, is a member of the Information Security Operations Center for his IT company in San Antonio. All 

of these young men have accelerated their careers with great salaries, benefits, and no college debt. They’re having a transformational impact on their families and our community. These 

outstanding graduate stories are part of today’s submitted written 

testimony. 

So the moral of this story, a solid model, the Alamo Academies, 

a community collaborative with college-level instruction, national 

industry certificates integrated into the curriculum, connected to 

industry through paid internships where the student receives realworld experiences and mentoring and providing opportunities to 

participate in competitive programs like CyberPatriot. It’s producing outstanding talent immediately out of high school to help 

close the talent gap in Federal IT and the private sector. 

I want to thank you for your time and the opportunity to share 

the Alamo Academies story. 

[Prepared statement of Mr. Bowman follows:] 


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Mr. HURD. Mr. Bowman, thank you for that. And it gives me 

hope that we are producing the kind of talent we need in order to 

defend our digital infrastructure. 

Mr. BOWMAN. Thank you. 

Mr. HURD. Mr. Cambry, you are now recognized for your opening 

remarks for five minutes. 

STATEMENT OF EMILE CAMBRY 

Mr. CAMBRY. Thank you, Chairman Hurd, Ranking Member 

Kelly, and all the esteemed members of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform for the opportunity to testify for you 

today. 

My name is Emile Cambry. I’m the oldest child of an immigrant 

from Haiti and an African-American woman on the west side of 

Chicago. In their youth, my parents endured the frustration of economic hardship and the pain and indignity of racism and anti-immigrant sentiment firsthand. 

But they overcame the frustration, they overcame the pain, and 

they overcame the indignity to become a doctor and a nurse. They 

had the work ethic and the access to opportunity necessary to do 

what statistics said they never would do—succeed. 

And they made sure they did everything possible to give my 

younger brother and sister the opportunities to overcome the obstacles necessary for us to attend top institutions. Thanks to their sacrifice, I was able to study economics at the University of Chicago 

and business at Northwestern University’s graduate school. 

I’ve since had the opportunity to work at JP Morgan Chase in 

their investment banking unit and teach graduate-level business 

and economic courses at three graduate institutions. 

My parents and all of my life’s experience up until three years 

ago helped me realize one thing. Entire communities and generations of hardworking, incredibly talented men, women, and youth 

are not being given access to the very opportunities that helped my 

family overcome the hardships in their life. 

That’s why I founded an organization that addresses that, 

BLUE1647, to bring opportunity to opportunity deserts across the 

country. BLUE1647 transforms lives and communities by going 

into these opportunity deserts and providing residents with access 

to 21st century tech skills so they can too access the opportunities 

necessary for them to overcome the hardships in their life. 

The formula was simple: Go where the need is greatest; teach 

those interested in the most marketable skills; and see people overcome poverty, racism, and other hardships in a way that you’ve 

never seen before. 

And today, I’d like to take the time to talk about how the various 

programs and public sector partnerships I’ve had the chance to 

build are turning communities with few prospects into hubs for 

tech rock stars that can and will yield an ecosystem of diverse talent to fill the 1.2 million new tech jobs that will need to be filled 

by 2020 in this country, and that includes Federal IT. 

And already we’re starting to see that vision come to fruition. 

While we were founded in Chicago just three years ago, thanks to 

the support of people like Congresswoman Kelly, we’ve since grown 

to have our tech centers present in eight cities and serve over 


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16,000 youth and adults. Our classes have included everything 

from app and software development, traditional IT, cybersecurity, 

and the Internet of Things. 

Physical location of our innovation centers are important, which 

is why we target in lower socioeconomic areas, and 95 percent of 

our students are black or Latino. 

But we don’t water down our curriculum because of space, place, 

age, or income. Our software development curriculum is Department of Labor-certified for our technology apprenticeship program. 

I’d like to take a moment to highlight some of the programs and 

success stories. Our 1919 Program is our Women in Tech and Entrepreneurship program. Since its inception a year ago, over 200 

women have participated in our cohort-based program, which is 12 

weeks in length. We have various tracks and have created a community approach for skill development in IT. We will soon be adding tracks in project management and cybersecurity. 

We have over a 97 percent net promoter score, and an additional 

75 women have begun our program this week. All of these women 

are black or Latino. 

Our 21st Century Youth Project is for students as young as 4 

and as old as 17 where we have had some great successes in cohort-based training. We have had students intern at Google, Answers.com, Accenture, and Microsoft, including starting their own 

ventures. Over 70 students have gone on to matriculate into computer science and engineering programs. 

We have hosted the Chief Officers for the United States Digital 

Services Team, United States Chief Data Officer D.J. Patil, and 

have held general recruiting events around Federal IT opportunities and careers. Over 200 were in attendance for one event, and 

the major takeaway was that you can serve your country using the 

technology skills, which was a new concept to many of our 

attendees. 

We have executed some tremendous public and private partnerships to plant seeds in areas you would not expect. In St. Louis, 

we are a partner in the Jobs-Plus program, a Federal HUD program over four years to increase employment prospects in housing 

developments. The housing development we focused on is the Clinton Peabody development, where we became—where before the program started had a 68 percent unemployment rate, 93 percent were 

led by a single mother. At the development, we are partnered with 

the St. Louis Housing Authority, the workforce development arm of 

the—St. Louis, SLATE, and the NAACP of St. Louis. 

BLUE1647 installed community Wi-Fi, so residents can participate in having Internet access, and we focus on bridging the digital 

divide. 

We conduct technology classes for adults during the day and provide afterschool technology immersion for youth after school. 

In addition to working with one housing development in St. 

Louis, we started working in six housing developments in Los Angeles this week. We do—the more we can replicate our model and 

support other programs like ours, we ultimately create a pipeline 

of tech talent who will be naturally interested in technology careers 

Thank you for your time, I’ll gladly take any questions that 

members of the committee might have. 


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[Prepared statement of Mr. Cambry follows:] 


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Mr. HURD. Mr. Cambry, I am usually at these hearings—I usually get outraged when I hear opening remarks, but this time I am 

inspired by what is going on, so thank you for being here for that. 

And I believe the ranking member is going to submit her opening 

remarks for the record, is that correct? Without objection, so 

moved. 

Mr. HURD. I am going to recognize myself for five minutes and 

go back and forth with Ms. Kelly until we get the going to go to 

the Floor for votes. And, Ms. Ferrini-Mundy, my first question for 

you is these SFS CyberCorps, you said there is about a little over 

2,000 graduates from that program starting in 2001. You said 

about 600 active. What is the head room? Have we hit the cap? 

Ms. FERRINI-MUNDY. Well, we’re always looking for institutions 

that can come into the fold. We’re funding about 62 different institutions right now, and so a big piece of our activity is to build capacity in more places so that we can broaden out the access for students more widely. 

Mr. HURD. So the scholarships, it is basically a scholarship. 

There is a dollar amount —— 

Ms. FERRINI-MUNDY. Right. 

Mr. HURD.—it is a range, right, depending on —— 

Ms. FERRINI-MUNDY. Right. 

Mr. HURD.—the institution. How many more of these could we 

be doing? Let’s assume we have, you know, miraculously you can— 

I’ll let you borrow my magic wand. We have these institutions. Do 

we have an idea of, you know, is it 600 more students, is it 100 

more students, is it 10 more students? 

Ms. FERRINI-MUNDY. I mean, we could get back to you with a 

closer analysis of that. It varies by institution type. 

Mr. HURD. Right. 

Ms. FERRINI-MUNDY. We’re trying to build up our involvement 

with community colleges so that we again —— 

Mr. HURD. Yes. 

Ms. FERRINI-MUNDY.—see more of a pipeline. 

Mr. HURD. Could we make—I am sure Mr. Bowman would love 

to be the first, you know, to help be one of the ones that help make 

that—I don’t want to speak for you, Mr. Bowman, but I am assuming you are not part of the 62 institutions that receive some of 

these CyberCorps scholarships, is that correct? 

Mr. BOWMAN. Mr. Hurd, we’re not today, but we surely can be 

tomorrow. 

Mr. HURD. Making things happen, huh, Robin Kelly, right here? 

And one other thing, and, you know, I am interested in the 

CyberCorps primarily to figure this idea of a Cyber National 

Guard, right? These are going to be folks that don’t go necessarily 

in the DOD or the NSA but Social Security Administration, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Interior. We need people there. And to be able to get them out of university when they 

know that they are going to spend X number of years there and 

that they probably have a job already waiting, a good-paying job 

with a company that is willing to loan them back to the Federal 

Government is important. So I have a lot of questions around that. 

But the Computer Science for All program, is that something 

that BLUE1647 is able to tap into? And I would love your thoughts 


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on whether that is, and, Mr. Cambry, you know, whether that is 

something that you are even interested in. 

Ms. FERRINI-MUNDY. I mean, absolutely. We have a number of 

different places where that program is being funded, most—primarily in our Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and 

Teachers, and we accept applications from all eligible places. We’d 

love to have great connections that go beyond the set of institutions 

that we typically see. 

So inclusion is a very strong emphasis for us. The other place 

where we are seeing phenomenal engagement from communities, 

from community-based organizations, from a variety of industry 

sectors is under our new INCLUDES program, which has 7 of its 

37 First Awards are collaboratives among community organizations 

focused on high-tech engagement with minority students. 

Mr. HURD. Mr. Cambry, are you willing to participate and learn 

more about it? 

Mr. CAMBRY. Absolutely. And for centers like our housing developments, we really look at that as truly a model that we can truly 

expand and scale, and having programs that—with the curriculum 

that’s already tried and tested only makes our jobs easier, which 

is trying to create a culture of technology development to get people 

excited and engaged and pursue paths and careers in technology. 

Mr. HURD. Great. Thank you. And back to the CyberCorps for a 

second, the CNAP talks about investing more money into that program. So, again, when you get back to me on the details, where do 

we think that headroom is, right, because, look, in Texas alone in 

2015 we had 42,000 computing jobs that went unfilled, right? And 

we are not producing enough to fill that, and that is just in private 

sector, I believe. And the need in the Federal Government is even 

more. 

And so I am going to stop there and turn it over to my ranking 

member and come back and ask some more questions about kind 

of structurally how we can do this in the private sector. 

My good friend and the distinguished gentlelady from the great 

State of Illinois is now recognized for five minutes. 

Ms. KELLY. Thank you so much. First, I just want to congratulate you on all your hard work with the bill that was passed today. 

It showed bipartisanship, which people don’t think we can do, but 

we have done that on this committee. And welcome all of you. I 

just, though, have to give a special shout-out to Mr. Cambry. 

Emails on my STEM Council that I started when I came in the 

Congress—I have a STEM Council and the STEM Academy, and he 

has helped us greatly, so thank you so much. And thanks for all 

of your testimony. 

I too am very, very concerned about the jobs that go unfulfilled 

but also the lack of Latinos and African-Americans that are prepared to fill those jobs. And it is extremely important. And when 

I think about a district like mine where our unemployment rate 

is—even though everything has gone down but it is still higher 

than the national average. And then when I visit companies and 

I hear that they can’t find—they don’t even need to be college graduates but they still can’t find people to fill those positions. So I am 

very interested in how we can diversify and fill those positions. 

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paying jobs that you can have middle-class income and do the 

things that you need to do. 

I had a set of questions, but listening to you guys, what more do 

you think that Congress needs to do to help reach these goals of 

filling these jobs, more diversification? Do you see—besides things 

we are doing today, how can we be more helpful, I guess? And that 

is anybody. Don’t be shy. 

Mr. MONTGOMERY. I think one of the things that is already in 

motion, if you look at this administration, this has been a very forward-thinking, forward-leaning administration with respect to 

cyber, the number of policies, the number of directives, the risk 

management framework itself. 

One of the things I would urge is that regardless of what happens shortly that that energy continue because this is a topic that 

we can’t take a four-year break on —— 

Ms. KELLY. Right. 

Mr. MONTGOMERY.—we can’t take a four-hour break on, we can’t 

take a four-minute break on. 

One of the things that I think would actually help in addition to 

that, Intel in 2015 we’ve committed $300 million to the similar topics as my fellow panelists with respect to women and underrepresented minorities to make the workforce more diverse specifically 

in technology. 

But there has to be—there has to be some protection for the U.S. 

Government for its own employees. And what I would suggest is 

that Congress look at modifying the way that talented Federal 

cyber employees are compensated, retained, and trained because 

the lure to the private sector is intense because, as you mentioned, 

Ms. Kelly, the number of spots that are open is so demanding that 

people are looking down the street when the only change is money 

because of that intense demand. And we need to make sure that 

our Federal workforce in particular—and this is what Congress can 

help with—remains highly paid, highly trained, highly effective, 

and highly motivated to stay. 

Mr. BOWMAN. If I may, Ms. Kelly, thank you for the question 

about what Congress can do. 

For the Alamo Academies, a community collaborative program, 

homegrown, one of the things that drive that model with our industry partners is a pull system—not a push—a pull system to industry demands and requirements to meet their needs. 

And, as Chairman Hurd indicated, he had an internship with 

Southwest Research Institute that kind of got him excited about 

his career and got him on a pathway. That’s exactly what the Academies are doing today with this model. 

We had over 45 internships last year alone just from the IT 

Academy and about 120 internships in all five academies. That 

model is limited because our capacity depends on how many internships we can get with companies. So any incentive—and many of 

our industry partners on the Academies board would love to come 

and help you work on that issue. Any incentive that can encourage 

and motivate companies to take on these internship responsibilities 

even at high school level would show that high school young men 

and women can accomplish these duties and they can do it successfully if they’re in the right model and they’re mentored properly. 


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And we’re showing that this is working and it’s been working for 

the last 16 years. 

In regards to minorities, though, San Antonio is a majority-minority community, and over 70 percent of our graduates are Hispanics today and 6 percent are African-American. So I think we’re 

achieving that in our local community and modeled like the Academy can do that in whatever community that they’re in like Mr. 

Cambry here, you know. You’ve got a couple of great models here. 

But incentivizing our industry partners to want to take on these 

internships, there is some cost to them to do that, but the benefit 

to homegrown product pays off hugely when they come, and that 

loyalty and that culture they get by getting exposed to it early in 

life. And they don’t have any bad habits. They’re coming in very 

young, and it’s easy to get a secret clearance because they haven’t 

done anything bad yet. 

[Laughter.] 

Ms. KELLY. Did you have any thoughts about —— 

Mr. CAMBRY. Yes, and I will just add into that. One of the reasons why we pursued this apprenticeship model for software development was because it gave us stamp of approval that we can take 

to employers to say they’ve been trained, this curriculum has been 

certified, and on top of that we’re trying to include folks that otherwise might have been excluded. 

So I think that, you know, in addition to what Mr. Bowman has 

mentioned, any incentives that we can get more employers on 

board that can give us some opportunities to folks that otherwise 

wouldn’t have gotten them because, once again, as he mentioned, 

when you don’t have college debt and you’re still able to pursue 

some revenue for your family, and especially to be able to jump 

into the middle class, it has a tremendous effect not just for that 

family but for that community to say that this is a possible pathway and this is a pathway we can be successful in in a relatively 

short amount of time with some very intensive training. 

Ms. KELLY. How do you get the word out about your programs 

because that is always my concern, too, that sometimes entities 

like yours don’t know what is out there for you as far as grants 

because maybe we don’t do a good enough job getting the word out, 

but also how do the young people know that you exist? What do 

you do to get the word out? Any order. 

Mr. MONTGOMERY. May I just—so it’s funny that you’re asking 

that because I was thinking the exact same thing. I—with respect 

to Mr. Bowman’s comments, I think there would be a line of employers with paid internships and programs where a matriculating 

student would enter the internship’s organization. I think people 

would line up around the block because they don’t have an alternative today. And I think the challenge is one of awareness. 

One of the things that we’re doing—and we’ve sort of relegated 

our efforts to higher education—is with respect to that exact kind 

of awareness between local centers such as the University of Massachusetts. We reach out to local employers who are having trouble 

employing and doing internship programs for kids who are currently in hands-on programs at the university. 

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ignated to say, look, here’s a workforce that wants to work. They 

actually want to work, and they want to come help you with your 

problems. We constantly get asked for those resources. We don’t 

have them either. So I think it is absolutely a challenge of awareness, but I think industry can help with these kinds of outreach as 

well. 

Mr. BOWMAN. If I may, opportunities like this to be able to come 

to Washington, D.C., and talk about programs that are being successful in the communities that are working together, there’s been 

historical bias that you had to be a four-year graduate to be in the 

IT career field. And fortunately, the last six or seven years, programs like the Academies connecting with opportunities like the 

Air Force Association CyberPatriot program where they’re getting 

these young men and women exposed to these opportunities so 

much earlier in life that you’re creating that skill set that they can 

do the job. 

And now, we have enough—well, we don’t have enough but we’re 

getting graduates out there in the community with Department of 

Defense, Defense contractors, and then showing them that they can 

do this work. So we don’t have the companies lined up yet, but I 

believe in just a few short years with more marketing and exposure 

and seeing how there’s multiple career pathways. 

You go to college—Robert, one of our examples, went straight to 

college and came out and got offered a job a year before he graduated. One of them went right into the workforce. Mario went up 

to Defense with the Pentagon, so he used a career path. And the 

other three are using a hybrid. They’re going to community college, 

getting associate degrees, minimal debt, getting scholarships while 

they’re working, continuing their higher education because they see 

the benefit of it, but they also have that experience. 

So here is young men and women getting exposed to that culture 

and excited about it, and industry is starting to get excited about 

it as well. So the more we can do to encourage, let our industry 

partners know that these young men and women can do this work, 

then we’re going to have them lined up at the door. And we can 

meet that need. Thank you. 

Ms. FERRINI-MUNDY. Could I just add one other dimension to 

think about in this context? And that has to do with the rapidly 

changing landscape of the cybersecurity world. And so at a place 

like the National Science Foundation, it’s very important for our research investments in such areas as access control and cyber physical systems and privacy and data analytics and so forth. All of 

that research is teaching us about this rapidly changing landscape. 

And it’s important, I believe, in thinking about the curricula, the 

experiences that students get in their preparation for us to keep in 

mind that this is a dynamic field where we need to continually be 

updated, be offering internship and authentic experiences so students are working at the cutting edge as early on as they can in 

this domain, which is part of what makes it both exciting and challenging. It has to stay very current. 

Ms. KELLY. With the academy we have, the council actually—we 

have someone from the elementary level and the two-year and then 

four-year because that was—and then the industry people because 

the concern was getting the young people interested anyway, to 


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whet their appetite, but then making sure the high school and the 

community colleges are teaching what needed to be taught. 

Did you have any —— 

Mr. CAMBRY. I’ll just add in one last thing. Any time you have 

a little bit of success and one gets a job or an opportunity, it creates a ripple effect. Yesterday, I got word that one of our students, 

we—we partnered with an adult school in Compton, California. 

One of the students got their industry certification in cybersecurity, 

and they recently got a job at—offered a full-time job at HewlettPackard, and all of a sudden I get 50 emails today about folks who 

say, hey, what is it that your program does? And so I think those 

kind of small successes have a ripple effect, but you’re starting to 

see people to say I can be successful in this space. 

Mr. MONTGOMERY. One of the —— 

Mr. HURD. Go ahead. 

Mr. MONTGOMERY. Thank you. One of the things that I think 

Homeland and the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation program 

did well was it put together a framework for organizations to understand their cybersecurity posture, where their gaps were, and 

how to improve. One of the things that we could do similarly is to 

create this clearinghouse of these kinds of organizations and academies that have interns available, what their level of training is, 

what their level of certification is, where their location is in order 

to incent employers, both government and nongovernment, to have 

a place to go to fill this need even if it’s with interns in temporary 

assignments because any work that they’re doing is going to help 

the organization, as well as the candidate get some real-time 

hands-on experience. 

But that clearinghouse of these organizations like Mr. Cambry’s, 

like Mr. Bowman’s, I’m not aware of it. That would be ideal because then people can shop by their location, shop by their need, 

and help benefit the local community as well. 

Mr. HURD. I am going to recognize myself for another five minutes. 

So I think, you know, here there is consensus that there is a 

need in the IT workforce for professionals who have received their 

skills through training, certificates, or a degree that is not a traditional four-year model. Is that consensus there? And, Dr. FerriniMundy, the CyberCorps program can be used for those types of 

things, is that correct? 

Ms. FERRINI-MUNDY. Certainly. We—particularly in the capacitybuilding area, we can be funding the design of innovative curricular approaches, different durations of training, and particularly 

the connection to the two-year colleges. 

Mr. HURD. Yes. But scholarships as well? 

Ms. FERRINI-MUNDY. Yes, scholarships also go to two-year college 

students. 

Mr. HURD. Got you. 

Ms. FERRINI-MUNDY. Yes. 

Mr. HURD. So what do we need to do to grow the program? And 

what do we need to do to grow the program? And just so I am 

clear, if I am a senior in high school, do I apply to OPM for this 

scholarship and then take it to a school or do I have to apply it 

to one of the 62 institutions for that specific program? 


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Ms. FERRINI-MUNDY. Right. So you have to apply to one of the 

62 institutions, and OPM does a very good job in publicizing these 

institutions and the program, so that’s one thing. 

But your other question about what would it take to grow this 

program in our fiscal year 2017 request, we have indicated that 

we’d like to lay the groundwork with an increase for SFS alumni 

to be available over the course of their careers to help the Federal 

Government respond to cybersecurity challenges. So this is related 

to the reserve idea, to the cyber surge corps idea. 

But at the same time for us at the National Science Foundation, 

I believe we’re beginning to think about this systemically. So we do 

have the SFS program with its scholarships, but I mentioned our 

INCLUDES program, our Advanced Technology Education program, the Computer Science for All initiative. And I think that that 

leads me to believe a more systemic look by us inside our agency 

at how we think about the pathways, at how we kind of build a 

context, connect to the research. That would help us address the 

challenges that we’re trying to address in a more comprehensive 

way. 

Mr. HURD. Good copy. Mr. Montgomery, your point about the 

draw of the private sector, now, the value in, you know, the 

CyberCorps or a National Guard is saying you are going to commit 

to the Federal Government for a length of time. If it is the length 

of time of what your scholarship is or we say it is four years or 

something, that is what gets someone into the ground floor at protecting digital infrastructure. 

And then if we add on top of that that there is participating entities or companies that are willing to help loan those folks back, you 

know, as their National Guard experience, how do we structure 

that in such a way that it is not disruptive to business operations? 

Mr. MONTGOMERY. There’s actually some great Federal examples 

of this kind of loaning program. There’s a program in particular out 

of OSD called the Corporate Fellows Program where—and this is 

a little bit different. This isn’t students necessarily, but the model 

could be very, very similar. An officer grade 6 is loaned out for a 

year. The government pays for the salary; the private company 

pays for all of the travel and expenses for the military officer. But 

they’re embedded with the company for a year. And the thought is 

that they’ll return to their rotation with cutting-edge management 

technique and experience with respect to what private industry is 

doing. 

I can see the same exact thing being—with respect to this National Guard of Cyber Warriors as well because the demands in 

both industry and the private sector is so intense. Getting someone 

loaned out for the course of a year, the only difference is the company themselves would pay for the privilege. But it could be that 

kind of fellows program where it is a rotation in, it’s a rotation out. 

But I would urge you to investigate that program because those paperwork—that paperwork is already developed. We’re already 

doing those kinds of things. 

Mr. HURD. Yes, because the framework can be that you have 

these kids coming from high school and that they are going to 

school, whether it is, you know, four-year, two-year, or something 

else, but then the set of companies that want to see these Cyber 


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National Guardsmen and women are also the ones providing internships during that educational process as well, right, in order to 

help hone that so when they finally finish whatever educational opportunities they are looking at. 

That is kind of, you know, the concept that I envision of this program to make sure that we ultimately are having a cross-pollination of skill sets between the public and the private sector. Is 

that crazy? 

Mr. MONTGOMERY. Not at all. The number of occasions—when 

people think about cyber today, they think about a breach, but 

cyber is a 24-hour occupation. And the number of occasions where 

a private industry organization has a spike in demand for labor is 

routine. If you think about anyone with respect to the vertical markets like retail or banking, there are—it is cyclical. They have more 

demand at different times than they do at other times. And the 

ramp-up for a guard contingent would be an important bolster to 

their workforce. 

Also, with respect to Presidential Directive 41 where they established the guidelines for what happens in a government breach, the 

same thing can be said for the private sector as well. There is a 

criminal element that the FBI investigates. There is a hygiene element that Homeland is responsible for. And there is constant need 

for updates and hygiene and good best practices that this National 

Guard could take care of an ongoing basis that companies are 

struggling to find good supply for. 

Mr. HURD. Got you. Dr. Ferrini-Mundy, what is the first step 

that an entity like the Alamo colleges need to do in order to be part 

of the 62 participating agencies in the CyberCorps? 

Ms. FERRINI-MUNDY. Well, I think that Mr. Bowman and I need 

to exchange business cards and talk about the various possibilities 

for getting to know the National Science Foundation and its —— 

Mr. HURD. I think we can make that happen. 

Ms. FERRINI-MUNDY. Okay. It’s starting already. 

Mr. HURD. And then what about for an organization like 

BLUE1647 to participate in the Computer Science for All program? 

Ms. FERRINI-MUNDY. Same response. And we can point you to 

the programs that would be, I think, the best-suited to the particular organizations here. 

Mr. HURD. Excellent. 

Ms. FERRINI-MUNDY. Very exciting. We’re looking always to 

broaden involvement and to reach out more generally. 

Mr. HURD. Great. I would now like to recognize for five minutes 

the gentleman from the Commonwealth of Virginia, Mr. Connolly. 

Mr. CONNOLLY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And welcome to our 

panel. 

Gosh, there are so many facets of this subject. Let’s start for a 

second with internships. I don’t know if you know, Dr. FerriniMundy, but when you compare the Federal Government’s success 

with internships to the success in the private sector, you want to 

guess how well we do? 

Ms. FERRINI-MUNDY. No, I’d prefer to have you explain. I don’t— 

I’m not familiar with the —— 

Mr. CONNOLLY. Anyone from the private sector want to take a 

guess at the rough percentage of interns who are eligible and hired 


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for employment in terms of a successful internship? It is very high. 

It is, you know, well above 60 percent private sector. In some private sector companies it is like—well, I won’t name one that hired 

my daughter—but it is in the 90 percentile. 

We are in the single digits, Dr. Ferrini-Mundy in the Federal 

Government. It is a fiasco. There is no systematic mentoring. There 

is no systematic exposure to all aspects of an agency’s mission or 

most of them. There is no morale booster. We actually have people 

who leave when they kind of talk in any kind of exit interview, if 

there is one, who say I would rather put my head through a pencil 

sharpener than ever work for the Federal Government again. 

We don’t see it apparently as a tool for recruiting the next generation or motivating the next generation or tailoring the next generation, which the private sector systematically does. Otherwise, 

why have an internship program? Why not make it work for both 

sides? You try us out for size and we are trying you out, but we 

have done some screening and orientation so the probability of you 

sticking around with us is high. And our desire for making a permanent job offer is also high. Otherwise, it is very inefficient, and 

we are actually turning people off to our mission. 

I don’t mean to suggest by saying this that you in any way, 

shape, or form have responsibility. I just point out it is a subject 

I looked into, and I was appalled at the data I found and what a 

complete opportunity cost our current internship efforts are in the 

Federal Government. 

And it is relevant to the topic at hand because we can’t afford 

that, especially when it comes to the Federal IT issue and cyber in 

particular because our IT experts in the Federal Government are 

aging out. And if you looked at the average age of our counterpart 

in the private sector, it is much younger. 

So the private sector does not have a problem recruiting the next 

generation to handle the mission. We are. And the only choice we 

have, it seems to me, is to recruit a younger generation. Well, what 

are the tools at hand for doing that? And I worry about that. The 

pay gap is growing. The desirability of the workplace can be a challenge. I think it is very hard for a Federal recruiter to go to a university campus and say I see a 30-year Federal career in your future and you are going to love it. 

Now, partly, we are to blame. Congress has done a great job in 

making the Federal workplace a less desirable place in public 

imagination. We have disparaged the workforce, we have frozen 

salaries, we have cut benefits. None of that brings any glory on us, 

and I think frankly was designed in some cases to do just that, 

make it less desirable as a career choice. 

But we can’t afford to continue to do that, certainly not in the 

sphere that the chairman and ranking member here are exploring 

because IT is just too important. Security is involved, national security is involved, privacy is involved. And so I think this is a critical topic, and I think there are things we can do to make it easier 

on ourselves to do that recruiting and to make it more attractive, 

internship programs being one of them. That is not rocket science. 

And the private sector has lots of models that are profoundly successful that we could emulate or learn from or benchmark against 

if we would only try. 


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But longer term, we are going to have to suspend some normal 

civil service workplace protections if we are going to have fellows 

who go in and out of the government. That is not so easy. That is 

really not so easy. I wish it were, so we are going to have to be 

less rule-driven if we are going to do that while still protecting everybody involved. We are going to have to look at more flexibility, 

obviously, in pay scales. If we are not willing to do that, we will 

never attract a talent comparable to that we face in the private sector. 

So I think there are lots of issues here for us to continue to explore. I thank you so much for having this hearing because I think 

this is a critical piece of what we are trying to do in IT modernization and upgrading the Federal Government. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. HURD. Amen, brother. 

Last round of questions from me and then we will wrap it up. 

And, Dr. Ferrini-Mundy, are the folks that are participating in the 

CyberCorps, are they staying around in the Federal Government? 

You gave some stats at the very beginning. Can you characterize 

that for me? 

Ms. FERRINI-MUNDY. Well, I would like to first just mention 

briefly how excited they are as they enter the Federal Government, 

and so although the incentive of a scholarship is powerful and the 

payback requirement is definitely there, this jobs fair that we do 

in conjunction with OPM every January attracts 100 Federal agencies, and students are hired on the spot and do their security clearances while they’re —— 

Mr. HURD. And this is a jobs fair for —— 

Ms. FERRINI-MUNDY. For the SFS graduates. 

Mr. HURD. Okay. 

Ms. FERRINI-MUNDY. So we know that they’re welcomed into the 

Federal Government with—warmly, and the data that we have indicates that about 70 percent stay beyond their service requirement. So we are again tracking to see how long they stay and what 

they do, but their entry is very quick and smooth and they’re quite 

in demand. 

Mr. HURD. And how does—I don’t know if it is NSF or OPM. 

How do they prioritize which agencies are in need of these potential SFS or is it this—it is a free-for-all and you come to this job 

fair and that is how you do it? 

Ms. FERRINI-MUNDY. I think I—it’s my understanding that there 

is no prioritization particularly, but the agencies show up, they 

make themselves available, they talk with students. And we’d love 

to invite the members of the subcommittee to join us next year 

when we go through it. It’s quite fascinating. 

But, as I understand it, there’s no —— 

Mr. HURD. Yes. 

Ms. FERRINI-MUNDY. It’s an open discussion. 

Mr. HURD. Please do. And in my remaining three minutes and 

18 seconds, I want to go down the line. And, Mr. Cambry, I want 

to start with you. This notion of a Cyber National Guard, I think 

you are attracting people in from areas that may not be exposed 

to this. We can expose them to, you know, the CyberCorps program. We can expose them to institute like the Alamo Academies, 


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equivalents in your neck of the words. And then we have companies like Intel that are interested in hiring them. 

What do you see is kind of the next step in trying to achieve that 

vision? And that is really—my question down the line—and, Mr. 

Cambry, you are going to have the last word. 

Mr. CAMBRY. For us, it always has been can we change the narrative so people can see themselves being successful in these positions? So that’s kind of the standpoint we took since we first started. 

Now, our standpoint is to also convince the employers that there 

is some value to investing in these folks from the community and 

other nontraditional settings. We’ve also been able to partner with 

colleges, community colleges, and a whole host of other people as 

part of this ecosystem of kind of support. 

What that next step for us has always been, partnering with organizations that either do the placement or that have those direct 

connections to those employers because, once again, the more that 

we can focus on our students and our constituent base and not as 

much on trying to find the perfect match with the employers, it 

makes our job easier because then we can push harder downstream 

and really start cultivating that level of talent and really focus 

even more on our curriculum, placement, and being able to do the 

testing necessary to make sure they’re ready. 

Mr. HURD. Thank you. And thank you for being here. And everybody, the remaining—you have got 30 seconds to answer that question. Mr. Bowman, you are recognized for 30 seconds. 

Mr. BOWMAN. Chairman Hurd, thanks again for the opportunity. 

So it’s real simple. Companies that are willing to invest in an intern get to indoctrinate this young man and woman to their culture. And what they’re finding is the retention is off the charts. 

Sometimes it’s the first paycheck that these young men and women 

have received, so they’re bleeding that company’s blood, that color, 

forever. Their loyalty is off the charts. So if you invest in it, you 

get a positive return on investment. 

Businesses will not be participating in a program like the Alamo 

Academies going into their 16th year if there was not a positive return on investment. And internships is that secret ingredient to 

getting these young men and women exposed just like yourself 

when you had yours at Southwest Research and here you are 

today. And that’s a pathway to success, so I’m very much for it. 

Thank you for the opportunity. 

Mr. HURD. Thanks for being here. Mr. Montgomery? 

Mr. MONTGOMERY. I think demand is so intense that organizations will take a flyer. What I’d love to see is focus on a clearinghouse where the kids are made available to potential employers because they’ll come. They’ll absolutely come. 

Mr. HURD. Absolutely. Dr. Ferrini-Mundy, take us out. 

Ms. FERRINI-MUNDY. Thank you so much, Chairman Hurd, Congresswoman Kelly. This has been wonderful and exciting to talk 

about this topic. Two points that I’d like to leave us with, one is 

the critical importance of developing and seeking talent broadly 

across all groups from this country that have been underrepresented in the STEM fields, in the IT fields, and in the 


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cybersecurity fields. We need the diversity of this nation to be 

brought to bear on these challenges. 

And second point is that through public-private collaboration, the 

government and the private sector can work together to understand 

the changing needs in this domain and the kinds of experiences, 

certifications, assessments, ability to be certain that people are 

ready to step in as needed over the course of their career in and 

out of government so that we are taking the very best talent and 

helping them learn and grow throughout their careers. 

Mr. HURD. I would like to thank our witnesses for taking the 

time to appear before us today. What you guys do is important to 

educating our kids and the future of our country, so thank you for 

that. 

And if there is no further business, without objection, the subcommittee stands adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 4:31 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.] 


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