Walkinshaw Amendment to Speed up Pentagon’s Adoption of Cybersecurity Tools Passes House

Washington, D.C. -- Today, Congressman James R. Walkinshaw (VA-11), who serves on the House Oversight and Government Reform and Homeland Security Committees, secured House passage of his amendment to more efficiently deploy modern cybersecurity solutions within the Department of Defense (Dod), strengthen military cyber readiness, and encourage the concept of interagency reciprocity with regard to cloud security assessments and certifications. The amendment establishes a pilot program to help the DoD deploy modern cybersecurity tools more efficiently by accelerating review of cloud-based products that have already received FedRAMP High certification, the federal government's highest cloud security standard for handling sensitive unclassified information. By encouraging reciprocity between FedRAMP and DoD's cloud security assessment processes, the amendment saves taxpayer resources and helps ensure America's servicemembers have faster access to proven commercial cybersecurity capabilities. "At a time when cyber threats from our adversaries are becoming more sophisticated, the DoD must continue to improve efficiency around how it securely deploys proven cybersecurity tools," said Congressman Walkinshaw . "My amendment will help the Department speed up the process of assessing solutions that have already been vetted for federal agency use, while upholding rigorous security standards and helping ensure our servicemembers have access to the innovative capabilities they need to defend our nation." Currently, cloud service providers seeking to serve both civilian federal agencies and the DoD must complete separate security assessment processes, even though both rely on the same underlying National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) cybersecurity standards. Walkinshaw's amendment makes that process more efficient by helping DoD deploy trusted cybersecurity solutions faster while upholding the rigorous security standards our military and national security depend on. The amendment was included in the House-passed FY2027 National Defense Authorization Act. ###