Cybersecurity Skills Integration Act
Summary
What This Bill Does
The Cybersecurity Skills Integration Act creates a Department of Education pilot grant program to improve cybersecurity competencies in the critical infrastructure workforce. Within one year after enactment, the Secretary of Education must award competitive grants to eligible partnerships to develop new postsecondary career and technical education programs with cybersecurity education or to integrate cybersecurity education into existing postsecondary CTE programs that prepare students for critical infrastructure jobs.
The Secretary must consult the Secretary of Labor, the NIST Director, and the Secretary of Homeland Security to determine the greatest critical infrastructure workforce needs. Grants may not exceed $500,000 in a fiscal year. Applications must describe partner roles, target critical infrastructure sectors and in-demand occupations, workforce needs, alignment with the NICE Cybersecurity Workforce Framework, required assessments or capstone projects, work-based learning, credentials, annual curriculum updates, sustainability, diversity promotion, and intended uses of funds. Grantees must submit annual reports with spending, credential, student subgroup, curriculum update, work-based learning, and employment information.
Who Benefits and How
Postsecondary institutions benefit from grant funding to build or update CTE programs. Critical infrastructure employers benefit because partnerships are designed around their cybersecurity workforce needs. Students in CTE programs, including special populations such as students with disabilities, low-income students, English learners, foster youth, and military-connected youth, benefit from credentials, work-based learning, and pathways into in-demand cybersecurity jobs. NIST, Labor, and Homeland Security benefit from program alignment with national workforce frameworks and sector needs.
Who Bears the Burden and How
The Department of Education must create, compete, award, and oversee the pilot grants. Eligible partnerships must prepare detailed applications, update curricula annually, provide work-based learning, promote diversity, and report outcomes. Critical infrastructure employers must contribute capacity and workforce information. Federal grant funds bear up to $500,000 per grant per fiscal year.
Key Provisions
- Creates a competitive Department of Education pilot grant program for postsecondary CTE cybersecurity education.
- Limits each grant to no more than $500,000 in a fiscal year.
- Requires consultation with Labor, NIST, and Homeland Security on critical infrastructure workforce needs.
- Requires eligible partnerships to include a postsecondary educational institution and at least two critical infrastructure employers.
- Requires applications to address NICE Framework alignment, credentials, assessments, work-based learning, annual updates, sustainability, and diversity.
- Requires annual grantee reports on spending, credentials, student subgroups, curriculum updates, work-based learning, and employment outcomes.
- Defines cybersecurity education, eligible partnerships, critical infrastructure, postsecondary education, work-based learning, recognized credentials, and special populations.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Creates a competitive Department of Education pilot grant program for eligible partnerships to develop or integrate cybersecurity education into postsecondary career and technical education programs serving critical infrastructure workforce needs.
Key Policy Areas
Cybersecurity, Career and Technical Education, Critical Infrastructure, Workforce Development, Education Grants
Primary Purpose
Creates a competitive Department of Education pilot grant program for eligible partnerships to develop or integrate cybersecurity education into postsecondary career and technical education programs serving critical infrastructure workforce needs.
Policy Domains
Sections 2 and 3 cybersecurity education grants for critical infrastructure CTE
Identified Gains
- Postsecondary career and technical education institutions
- Critical infrastructure employers
- Students seeking cybersecurity credentials
- Special population students in CTE programs
- NIST cybersecurity workforce framework staff
Identified Costs
- Department of Education grant administrators
- Eligible partnership applicants
- Critical infrastructure employer partners
- Federal education grant accounts
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeReferred to the House Committee on Education and Workforce.
Introduced in House
Mr. Thompson of Pennsylvania (for himself and Ms. Bonamici) introduced …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Eligible partnership applicants, Postsecondary career and technical education institutions, Students seeking cybersecurity credentials
Positive-direction: Postsecondary career and technical education institutions, Students seeking cybersecurity credentials
Negative-direction: Eligible partnership applicants
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "secretary"
- → Secretary of Education
- "consulting_agencies"
- → Department of Labor, NIST, and Department of Homeland Security
- "eligible_partnership"
- → Postsecondary education institution plus two or more critical infrastructure employers
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
Education on critical infrastructure cyber defense, including confidentiality, integrity, availability, industrial control systems, operational technology, and physical and environmental safety of critical infrastructure operations.
A partnership including a postsecondary educational institution and at least two public or private critical infrastructure employers with demonstrated cybersecurity workforce needs.
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology