II 

116TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 3929 

To authorize pilot programs on the remote provision by the National Guard 

to State governments and National Guards in other States of cybersecurity technical assistance in training, preparation, and response to cyber 

incidents, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JUNE 10, 2020 

Mr. PETERS introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 

to the Committee on Armed Services 

A BILL 

To authorize pilot programs on the remote provision by the 

National Guard to State governments and National 

Guards in other States of cybersecurity technical assistance in training, preparation, and response to cyber incidents, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 


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1 SECTION 1. PILOT PROGRAMS ON REMOTE PROVISION BY 

2 NATIONAL GUARD TO STATE GOVERNMENTS 

3 AND NATIONAL GUARDS IN OTHER STATES 

4 OF CYBERSECURITY TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE 

5 IN TRAINING, PREPARATION, AND RESPONSE 

6 TO CYBER INCIDENTS. 

7 (a) PILOT PROGRAMS AUTHORIZED.— 

8 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of the Army 

9 and the Secretary of the Air Force may each con10 duct a pilot program to assess the feasibility and ad11 visability of the development of a capability within 

12 the National Guard through which a National Guard 

13 of a State remotely provides State governments and 

14 the National Guard of other States (whether or not 

15 in the same Armed Force as the providing National 

16 Guard) with cybersecurity technical assistance in 

17 training, preparation, and response to cyber inci18 dents. 

19 (2) CONSTRUCTION IN DISCHARGE.—If such 

20 Secretary elects to conduct such a pilot program, 

21 such Secretary shall be known as an ‘‘administering 

22 Secretary’’ for purposes of this section, and any ref23 erence in this section to ‘‘the pilot program’’ shall be 

24 treated as a reference to the pilot program con25 ducted by such Secretary. 


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1 (3) COORDINATION AND CONSULTATION.—Ex2 cept as otherwise provided in this section, if such 

3 Secretary elects to conduct such a pilot program, 

4 such Secretary shall conduct all components of the 

5 assessment in subsection (b) and all components of 

6 the pilot program and reports in subsection (i) joint7 ly with the Secretary of Homeland Security and in 

8 consultation with the Chief of the National Guard 

9 Bureau and entities representing State governments 

10 (such as Governors and chief information officers). 

11 (b) ASSESSMENT PRIOR TO COMMENCEMENT.—For 

12 purposes of evaluating existing platforms, technologies, 

13 and capabilities under subsection (c), and for establishing 

14 eligibility and participation requirements under subsection 

15 (d), for purposes of the pilot program, an administering 

16 Secretary shall, prior to commencing the pilot program— 

17 (1) conduct an assessment of— 

18 (A) existing cyber capabilities available to 

19 States; 

20 (B) existing cyber response capacities of 

21 the Army National Guard or Air National 

22 Guard, as applicable, in each State; 

23 (C) any existing platform, technology, or 

24 capability of a National Guard that provides the 

25 capability described in subsection (a); and 


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1 (D) any other available existing platform, 

2 technology, or capabilities that may provide the 

3 capability described in subsection (a); and 

4 (2) determine whether a platform, technology, 

5 or capability described in paragraph (1)(C) or 

6 (1)(D) is suitable for expansion for purposes of the 

7 pilot program. 

8 (c) ELEMENTS.—A pilot program under subsection 

9 (a) shall include the following: 

10 (1) A technical capability that enables the Na11 tional Guard of a State to remotely provide cyberse12 curity technical assistance to State governments and 

13 the National Guard of other States, without the 

14 need to deploy outside its home State. The design 

15 and any development of such capability shall— 

16 (A) occur in consultation with the Sec17 retary of Homeland Security; and 

18 (B) enable, upon deployment and operation 

19 of the capability, interoperability with other 

20 Federal and non-Federal cyber response enti21 ties, including the Department of Homeland Se22 curity. 

23 (2) Policies, processes, procedures, and authori24 ties for use of such a capability, including with re25 spect to the following: 


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1 (A) The roles, responsibilities, and authori2 ties of both requesting and deploying State gov3 ernments, National Guards, and the Depart4 ment of Homeland Security with respect to 

5 such remote technical assistance, taking into 

6 account the matters specified in subsection (f). 

7 (B) Program management and governance 

8 structures for deployment and maintenance of 

9 the capability. 

10 (C) Security when performing remote sup11 port, including such in matters such as authen12 tication and remote sensing. 

13 (D) The efficient and effective use by Fed14 eral and non-Federal entities of the interoper15 ability functionality of the capability, as re16 quired by paragraph (1)(B). 

17 (3) The conduct, in consultation also with the 

18 Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, 

19 other Federal agencies, and appropriate non-Federal 

20 entities (in addition to the entities referred to in 

21 subsection (a)(3)), of at least one exercise to dem22 onstrate the capability, which exercise shall include 

23 the following: 

24 (A) Participation of not fewer than two 

25 State governments and their National Guards. 


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1 (B) Circumstances designed to test and 

2 validate the policies, processes, procedures, and 

3 authorities developed pursuant to paragraph (2) 

4 and the interoperability functionality of the ca5 pability, as required pursuant to paragraph 

6 (1)(B). 

7 (d) USE OF EXISTING TECHNOLOGY.—An admin8 istering Secretary may use an existing platform, tech9 nology, or capability to provide the capability described in 

10 subsection (a) under the pilot program. 

11 (e) ELIGIBILITY AND PARTICIPATION REQUIRE12 MENTS.—An administering Secretary shall establish re13 quirements with respect to eligibility and participation of 

14 State governments and their National Guards in the pilot 

15 program. 

16 (f) CONSTRUCTION WITH CERTAIN CURRENT AU17 THORITIES.— 

18 (1) COMMAND AUTHORITIES.—Nothing in a 

19 pilot program under subsection (a) may be construed 

20 as affecting or altering the command authorities 

21 otherwise applicable to any unit of the National 

22 Guard unit participating in the pilot program. 

23 (2) EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT ASSISTANCE

24 COMPACT.—Nothing in a pilot program may be con25 strued as affecting or altering any current agreeVerDate Sep 11 2014 04:01 Jun 25, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3929.IS S3929

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1 ment under the Emergency Management Assistance 

2 Compact, or any other State agreements, or as de3 terminative of the future content of any such agree4 ment. 

5 (g) EVALUATION METRICS.—An administering Sec6 retary shall establish metrics to evaluate the effectiveness 

7 of the pilot program. 

8 (h) TERM.—A pilot program under subsection (a) 

9 shall terminate on the date that is three years after the 

10 date of the commencement of the pilot program. 

11 (i) REPORTS.— 

12 (1) INITIAL REPORT.—Not later than 180 days 

13 after the date of the commencement of the pilot pro14 gram, the administering Secretary, in coordination 

15 solely with the Secretary of Homeland Security, 

16 shall submit to the appropriate committees of Con17 gress a report setting forth a description of the pilot 

18 program and such other matters in connection with 

19 the pilot program as the administering Secretary 

20 considers appropriate. 

21 (2) FINAL REPORT.—Not later than 180 days 

22 after the termination of the pilot program, the ad23 ministering Secretary, in coordination solely with the 

24 Secretary of Homeland Security, shall submit to the 


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1 appropriate committees of Congress a report on the 

2 pilot program. The report shall include the following: 

3 (A) A description of the pilot program, in4 cluding any partnerships entered into by the 

5 administering Secretary under the pilot pro6 gram. 

7 (B) A summary of the assessment per8 formed prior to the commencement of the pilot 

9 program in accordance with subsection (b). 

10 (C) A summary of the evaluation metrics 

11 established in accordance with subsection (g). 

12 (D) An assessment of the effectiveness of 

13 the pilot program, and of the capability de14 scribed in subsection (a) under the pilot pro15 gram. 

16 (E) An assessment of any obstacles, either 

17 in statute or policies of the Department of De18 fense or the Department of Homeland Security, 

19 that impacted the effectiveness of the capability 

20 described in subsection (a) under the pilot pro21 gram. 

22 (F) A description of costs associated with 

23 the implementation and conduct of the pilot 

24 program. 


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1 (G) A recommendation as to the termi2 nation or extension of the pilot program, or the 

3 making of the pilot program permanent with an 

4 expansion nationwide. 

5 (H) An estimate of the costs of making the 

6 pilot program permanent and expanding it na7 tionwide in accordance with the recommenda8 tion in subparagraph (G). 

9 (I) Appropriate proposals for updates to 

10 national cyber response plans. 

11 (J) Such recommendations for legislative 

12 or administrative action as the administering 

13 Secretary considers appropriate in light of the 

14 pilot program. 

15 (3) JOINT EXERCISE AFTER ACTION REPORT.— 

16 Not later than 90 days after completion of the exer17 cise described in subsection (c)(3), the administering 

18 Secretary, in coordination solely with the Secretary 

19 of Homeland Security and in consultation solely with 

20 the Chief of the National Guard Bureau, shall sub21 mit to the appropriate committees of Congress a 

22 joint Department of Defense and Department of 

23 Homeland Security after-action report on the exer24 cise. The report shall include the following: 


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1 (A) A description of the exercise scenario 

2 and participating entities. 

3 (B) A discussion of the effectiveness of the 

4 exercise in evaluating the capability described in 

5 subsection (a), including the policies, processes, 

6 procedures, and authorities developed pursuant 

7 to subsection (c)(2) and the interoperability 

8 functionality of the capability, as required pur9 suant to subsection (c)(1)(B). 

10 (C) A discussion of the effectiveness of the 

11 exercise in evaluating coordination between the 

12 National Guards and the Department of Home13 land Security during incident response. 

14 (D) A discussion of strengths and weak15 nesses of interdepartment communication, co16 ordination, and joint support to the State gov17 ernment or National Guard unit requesting as18 sistance during the exercise. 

19 (E) Such recommendations for legislative 

20 or administrative action as the administering 

21 Secretary or the Secretary of Homeland Secu22 rity considers appropriate in light of the exer23 cise. 


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1 (4) APPROPRIATE COMMITTEES OF CONGRESS

2 DEFINED.—In this subsection, the term ‘‘appro3 priate committees of Congress’’ means— 

4 (A) the Committee on Armed Services and 

5 the Committee on Homeland Security and Gov6 ernmental Affairs of the Senate; and 

7 (B) the Committee on Armed Services and 

8 the Committee on Homeland Security of the 

9 House of Representatives. 

10 (j) STATE DEFINED.—In this section, the term 

11 ‘‘State’’ means each of the several States, the District of 

12 Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, American 

13 Samoa, Guam, the United States Virgin Islands, and the 

14 Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. 

15 (k) FUNDING.— 

16 (1) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.— 

17 There is hereby authorized to be appropriated for 

18 fiscal year 2021 for the Department of Defense for 

19 operation and maintenance, Defense-wide activities, 

20 $6,000,000, with the amount to be available for ad21 ministrative and service-wide activities for the Office 

22 of the Secretary of Defense for the pilot programs 

23 authorized by subsection (a). 

24 (2) CONSTRUCTION WITH OTHER FUNDING.— 

25 The amount authorized to be appropriated and 


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1 available pursuant to paragraph (1) is in additional 

2 to any other amounts authorized to be appropriated 

3 for fiscal year 2021 for the Department of Defense. 

4 (l) TRANSFER OF FUNDS AUTHORIZED.—The Sec5 retary of Defense may transfer amounts available pursu6 ant to subsection (k)(1) to the Department of Homeland 

7 Security for credit to appropriations available for the Cy8 bersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency of the De9 partment of Homeland Security. Amounts so transferred 

10 shall be merged with and available for the same time pe11 riod as the appropriation to which transferred, and shall 

12 be available to carry out this section. 

Æ 


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