H.R. 4743 would authorize the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to work with a consortium, including the National Cybersecurity Preparedness Consortium (NCPC), to assist state and local governments to prepare for, and respond to, cybersecurity risks and incidents over the five-year period immediately following the bill’s enactment. Since 2014, NCPC has received about $6 million in grant funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to deliver cybersecurity training, exercises, and technical assistance to state and local governments. If implemented, CBO expects that DHS’s level of involvement under H.R. 4743 would remain unchanged and would consist primarily of reviewing and approving NCPC’s future applications for grant funding. Therefore, CBO estimates that to maintain a similar level of support as is currently provided by the NCPC to state and local governments, it would cost $15 million (average of $3 million per year in new grant funding) over the 2017-2021 period, assuming appropriation of the estimated amounts.
Enacting H.R. 4743 would not affect direct spending or revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply.
CBO estimates that enacting H.R. 4743 would not increase net direct spending or on-budget deficits in any of the four consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2027.
H.R. 4743 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and could benefit state and local law enforcement agencies by authorizing federal technical assistance and training for cybersecurity activities. Any costs incurred by those agencies would result from participation in voluntary federal programs.
