


The Republican-authored tax and spending bill that President Trump signed over the holiday weekend allocates hundreds of millions of dollars for cybersecurity.
U.S. Cyber Command grabbed one of the largest chunks of the Big Beautiful Bill, which allocates $250 million to build up the organization’s artificial intelligence division.
The bill also locks in a pool of $90 million for the Defense Department to use for cybersecurity “nontraditional contractors” — entities that don’t have a substantial history of completing contracts for the Pentagon.
The U.S. Coast Guard is receiving similar funds for cybersecurity. The branch has been allocated $2.2 billion to improve or repair cybersecurity assets in addition to $170 million for “maritime domain awareness.”
U.S. Indo-Pacific Command received $1 million for cyber operations. The allocation could prove necessary as the command looks to defend against cyberattacks from Russia, China and North Korea.
During budget talks, Democratic lawmakers fought Republicans hard on budget cuts that would hit cybersecurity. Democrats specifically focused on proposed cuts to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which they said would hamper America’s ability to defend against cyber threats.
Under the bill, CISA gets $2.7 billion, or $135 million less than the prior year.
Republicans argued that the bill still allocates enough money for CISA to perform its primary functions and said the organization overstepped its authority in previous years. Still, the CISA cut that Congress eventually reached was far lower than the Trump administration’s proposed $495 million reduction.
• Vaughn Cockayne can be reached at vcockayne@washingtontimes.com.