Cybersecurity Policy Report, House Panel to Examine Cyber Defenses of State, Local Governments, (May 18, 2026)
The “escalating” cyber threats facing state and local governments and the federal government’s role in helping them with cyber defense will be examined at a Thursday hearing of a House subcommittee.
The Homeland Security Committee’s cybersecurity and infrastructure protection subcommittee will meet at 2 p.m. in Room 310 of the Cannon House Office Building for a hearing titled “State and Local Cybersecurity: Escalating Threats, Federal Partnership, and the Resilience of America’s Communities,” according to Rep. Andy Ogles (R., Tenn.), the subcommittee’s chairman.
Legislation sponsored by Rep. Ogles, the Protecting Information by Local Leaders for Agency Resilience (PILLAR) Act (HR 5078), cleared the House last November. The bill would renew a $1 billion State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program that expired last September (CPR, Nov. 18, 2025).
“America’s state and local government networks are under attack from cyber criminals and malicious nation-state actors like never before, and we cannot afford to leave them defenseless. My PILLAR Act passed the House with strong support last year because cybersecurity at the local level is a foundational part of our national security,” Rep. Ogles said in a news release.
Witnesses at the hearing “will provide critical insight into this mission and the support they need to accomplish it as we work together to combat the cyber threats of tomorrow,” he said.
The subcommittee will hear from Kristin Darby, chief information officer for the state of Tennessee; Colin Ahern, director–security and intelligence for the state of New York; Warren Sponholtz, CIO for the state of Florida; and Samir Jain, vice president–policy at the Center for Democracy & Technology.
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