Graves Statement from hearing to examine Federal perspectives on U.S. infrastructure cybersecurity issues

Opening remarks, as prepared, of Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Ranking Member Sam Graves (R-MO) from today’s hearing entitled, “The Evolving Cybersecurity Landscape: Federal Perspectives on Securing the Nation's Infrastructure”:

Thank you, Chair DeFazio.

For today’s hearing, we will continue our examination of cybersecurity challenges for the transportation and infrastructure sectors.  During our first hearing on this topic in November, we heard from the perspective of owners and operators of these critical assets about the steps they have taken to improve their cybersecurity posture, the threats and risks they still face, and the effectiveness of federal government cyber activities.

Now we will hear testimony from some of those federal agencies themselves and learn how they are providing support to transportation and infrastructure operators in boosting their cybersecurity preparedness and response capabilities.

Stakeholders have expressed concerns about aspects of these federal programs — for instance, the recent security directives from the TSA — and I hope we can get some answers on how to improve their implementation.

We will also hear today about how federal agencies are protecting their own systems, data, and infrastructure from ever-changing cyber threats.  I look forward to hearing from our witness panel about the cyber challenges they’ve identified and examined for the federal agencies under the Committee’s jurisdiction, as well as receive updates from those agencies on how they are rising to meet these challenges.

I appreciate our witnesses joining us today and discussing how operators and federal agencies can work collaboratively to improve the cybersecurity of our nation’s most critical transportation systems and infrastructure.