Bill targeting HBCU cybersecurity job training enacted

Lawmakers and educators are espousing the benefits of the Cybersecurity Opportunity Act’s recent enactment, which officials maintain would bolster cybersecurity job training programs at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) and U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) joined colleagues in commending the measure’s enactment. It creates the Dr. David Satcher Cybersecurity Education Grant Program to expand cybersecurity training programs at HBCUs, tribal institutions, minority-serving institutions, and other colleges and universities serving a high proportion of Pell Grant recipients.

The legislation requires that 50 percent of Satcher grant funds be earmarked to support greater diversity and equality of opportunity in cybersecurity.

“This has been a long time coming, and it’s a big win for Georgia’s HBCUs and for cybersecurity in Georgia and nationwide,” Ossoff said.

Johnson said HBCUs, their students, Georgia, and the nation’s economy would reap the rewards of a more diverse, better-educated workforce capable of protecting against 21st-century threats.

“It is vitally important that we do everything we can to increase the numbers of minorities in science. Scientists solve humanity’s problems – and minorities in the United States have historically had limited access to the tools that will enable them to be a more representative part of this effort,” said Dr. David Satcher, former U.S. Surgeon General and Morehouse School of Medicine Dean. “We have the opportunity to do a better job much earlier in the development of the relatively new field of cybersecurity. I am honored that Sen. Ossoff and Congressman Johnson chose to attach my name to this crucial initiative.”