The Commerce Department plans to form a new office that will monitor supply chain vulnerabilities and work with companies to strengthen the cybersecurity of essential products, FCW reported Friday.
"The office is intended to help us deal with the challenges that we're seeing in our supply chains," Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told House lawmakers at a hearing Thursday.
She said the department is paying more attention to cybersecurity following the SolarWinds hack that affected federal systems.
Raimondo noted in her written testimony to the House Appropriations Committee's commerce, justice, science and related agencies subcommittee that President Biden requested for an $11.4 billion Commerce budget in fiscal 2022, up 27 percent from current agency funding levels.
The discretionary spending proposal includes $150 million to expand the department's Manufacturing Innovation Institutes Program and another $125 million to fund the Manufacturing Expansion Partnership at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
If you're interested in cybersecurity, check out GovCon Wire's Defense Cybersecurity Forum coming up this Wednesday. Click here to learn more.