By Suzanne Kubota
Senior Internet Editor
FederalNewsRadio.com

Funding for DHS’ cybersecurity R&D would double under a bill passed out of committee.

According to a press release from the office of House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D – MS), H.R. 4842, the “Homeland Security Science and Technology Authorization Act of 2010” would also authorize a “requirement that the process for identified, prioritized, and funded research and development be institutionalized and new training for all DHS personnel that are involved in writing technology requirements”.

The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-NY) told Federal News Radio the committee unanimously saw the value in the Science & Technology Directorate and that it’s “important that we strengthen this part of Homeland Security, provide it with much more robust possibilities and opportunities because this is the part of Homeland Security where we feel that an investment can yield a much better dividend.”

The idea, said Clarke, is to look at the best science out there to address things like a biological or chemical threat, “what could be done to counteract it, what has to happen in the event there is any sort of attack of that nature anywhere in the nation and how we respond to that.”

Clarke said the efforts to produce and identify best practices would also yield innovation.

She said that by opening up the S&T budget for cybersecurity, it allows DHS to look “anywhere technology is being used” to provide security.

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