[House Hearing, 114 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
CLOSING THE TALENT GAP IN FEDERAL IT
=======================================================================
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT
AND GOVERNMENT REFORM
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
SEPTEMBER 22, 2016
__________
Serial No. 114-160
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.fdsys.gov
http://www.house.gov/reform
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COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND GOVERNMENT REFORM
JASON CHAFFETZ, Utah, Chairman
JOHN L. MICA, Florida ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS, Maryland,
MICHAEL R. TURNER, Ohio Ranking Minority Member
JOHN J. DUNCAN, Jr., Tennessee CAROLYN B. MALONEY, New York
JIM JORDAN, Ohio ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON, District of
TIM WALBERG, Michigan Columbia
JUSTIN AMASH, Michigan WM. LACY CLAY, Missouri
PAUL A. GOSAR, Arizona STEPHEN F. LYNCH, Massachusetts
SCOTT DesJARLAIS, Tennessee JIM COOPER, Tennessee
TREY GOWDY, South Carolina GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia
BLAKE FARENTHOLD, Texas MATT CARTWRIGHT, Pennsylvania
CYNTHIA M. LUMMIS, Wyoming TAMMY DUCKWORTH, Illinois
THOMAS MASSIE, Kentucky ROBIN L. KELLY, Illinois
MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina BRENDA L. LAWRENCE, Michigan
RON DeSANTIS, Florida TED LIEU, California
MICK, MULVANEY, South Carolina BONNIE WATSON COLEMAN, New Jersey
KEN BUCK, Colorado STACEY E. PLASKETT, Virgin Islands
MARK WALKER, North Carolina MARK DeSAULNIER, California
ROD BLUM, Iowa BRENDAN F. BOYLE, Pennsylvania
JODY B. HICE, Georgia PETER WELCH, Vermont
STEVE RUSSELL, Oklahoma MICHELLE LUJAN GRISHAM, New Mexico
EARL L. ``BUDDY'' CARTER, Georgia
GLENN GROTHMAN, Wisconsin
WILL HURD, Texas
GARY J. PALMER, Alabama
Jennifer Hemingway, Staff Director
Sean Brebbia, Senior Counsel
William Marx, Clerk
David Rapallo, Minority Staff Director
------
Subcommittee on Information Technology
WILL HURD, Texas, Chairman
BLAKE FARENTHOLD, Texas, Vice Chair ROBIN L. KELLY, Illinois, Ranking
MARK WALKER, North Carolina Member
ROD BLUM, Iowa GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia
PAUL A. GOSAR, Arizona TAMMY DUCKWORTH, Illinois
TED LIEU, California
C O N T E N T S
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Page
Hearing held on September 22, 2016............................... 1
WITNESSES
Dr. Joan Ferrini-Mundy, Assistant Director, Education and Human
Resources, National Science Foundation
Oral Statement............................................... 2
Written Statement............................................ 4
Mr. Scott Montgomery, Vice President and Chief Technical
Strategist, Intel Security
Oral Statement............................................... 13
Written Statement............................................ 16
Mr. Gene Bowman, Executive Director, Alamo Academies
Oral Statement............................................... 24
Written Statement............................................ 26
Mr. Emile Cambry, Founder, Blue1647
Oral Statement............................................... 57
Written Statement............................................ 60
APPENDIX
Opening Statement of Ranking Member Kelly........................ 76
Statement for the Record submitted by The Computing Technology
Industry Association........................................... 78
CLOSING THE TALENT GAP IN FEDERAL IT
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Thursday, September 22, 2016
House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on Information Technology,
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform,
Washington, D.C.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 3:27 p.m., in
Room 2154, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Will Hurd
[chairman of the subcommittee] presiding.
Present: Representatives Hurd, Kelly, and Connolly.
Mr. Hurd. The Subcommittee on Information Technology will
come to order. And without objection, the chair is authorized
to declare a recess at any time.
We are going to be a little pressed for time today. We are
going to have a hard stop before votes come out. And so with
that, I am going to submit my opening statement for the record
so that we can get to the reason why we are here, and that is
to talk to our great panel that we have today.
Mr. Hurd. And I am going to hold the record open for five
legislative days for any members who would like to submit a
written statement.
I want to recognize our panel of witnesses. I am pleased to
welcome Dr. Joan Ferrini-Mundy, the assistant director of
Education and Human Resources at the National Science
Foundation; Mr. Scott Montgomery, vice president and chief
technical strategist at Intel Security; Mr. Gene Bowman
executive director of Alamo Academies and from my hometown of
San Antonio; and Emile Cambry, the founder of BLUE1647.
And welcome to you all. And pursuant to committee rules,
all witnesses will be sworn in before they testify. So please
rise and raise your right hands.
[Witnesses sworn.]
Mr. Hurd. Thank you. Please be seated.
Let the record reflect the witnesses answered in the
affirmative.
And in order to allow time for discussion, please limit
your testimony to five minutes, and your entire written
statement will be part of the record.
And again, thank you for being here on such an important
issue of closing the talent gap in Federal IT. In my 21 months,
this is the one thing I have heard consistently as a problem
not only in the government but in the private sector, and it is
great to have such a distinguished panel here to talk about
this and also advocate some ways that we can help work together
and solve this problem.
And with that, I would like to recognize Dr. Ferrini-Mundy
for your opening remarks.
WINTNESS STATEMENTS
STATEMENT OF JOAN FERRINI-MUNDY
Ms. Ferrini-Mundy. Good afternoon, Chairman Hurd, Ranking
Member Kelly, and other distinguished members of the
Subcommittee on Information Technology. My name is Joan
Ferrini-Mundy, and I'm the National Science Foundation's
assistant director for Education and Human Resources. Thank you
so much for the opportunity to testify before you today on this
critical topic for our nation, the preparation of a workforce
to provide our nation's cybersecurity.
The directorate that I lead has a unique and crucial
mission at a science agency within the Federal Government; that
is, supporting the preparation of a diverse, globally competent
science, technology, engineering, and mathematics--or STEM--
workforce and a STEM-literate citizenry. We do this by
providing grants to research and education organizations and
institutions across the country to support innovation in STEM
education to build capacity in STEM education for diverse
students and to do research and evaluation of those efforts.
Our funding supports both formal education and education
outside the formal system, for example, work in museums, public
television programming, and other public engagement. And in
addition, we fund very important programs for scholarships and
fellowships.
Our education investments are closely related to the
National Science Foundation's research investments,
particularly in the area of secure and trustworthy computing
where we fund leading researchers in cybersecurity areas from
cryptanalysis to cyber physical systems to social networking
and more.
Today, I'll focus on just a few of the NSF programs that
help to build the Nation's workforce for information technology
and cybersecurity. Specifically, NSF's CyberCorps Scholarship
for Service, or SFS program, was launched in 2001. We
coordinate closely with the Office of Personnel Management and
with the Department of Homeland Security to continue to recruit
and educate the next generation of cybersecurity professionals
broadly defined.
SFS makes awards to institutions of higher education to
provide scholarships to undergraduate and graduate students in
strong academic programs in cybersecurity and to develop and
enhance those cybersecurity programs so that they can remain at
the cutting edge and of the highest quality.
Students may be supported for up to three years, and in
return, they agree to take cybersecurity positions in local,
State, tribal, or Federal Government for the same duration as
their scholarships.
To date, the overall placement in cybersecurity-related
positions for SFS graduates in government is 94 percent. As of
last month, there were 62 active SFS institutions, nearly 3,000
scholarship recipients over the 16 years of the program, over
2,000 graduates, and over 600 current scholarship-holders.
NSF's Advanced Technological Education, or ATE, program
also has a very strong presence in information technology and
cybersecurity education. That program makes competitive awards
to community colleges that partner with other academic
institutions and with local industry to education science and
engineering students for technician positions. These are
students at the undergraduate and secondary school levels. ATE
funds comprehensive centers which may have either a national or
regional focus, and currently, they are supporting six large
cybersecurity-focused centers that serve the entire nation.
NSF also supports the development of a high technology
workforce for the Nation at the undergraduate and graduate
levels through several other programs, including the Research
Experiences for Undergraduates program, which offers intensive
summer research experiences in all areas of STEM, including
cybersecurity.
Taking a longer view, NSF aims to fund projects that
inspire K-through-12 students to consider high technology and
cybersecurity careers. The SFS program has partnered with the
National Security Agency to offer summer camps for K-through-12
students and teachers to build the pipeline.
And to help provide better access to computer science at
the K-through-12 level, NSF has taken on a leading role in the
Computer Science for All initiative with a commitment of $120
million over the next five years. Introduction to computational
thinking and to elements of computer science at the K-through-
12 level can help lay groundwork for the wider range of career
choices later on.
Finally, NSF partners with other Federal agencies in
cybersecurity education through the activities of the National
Science and Technology Council Committee on STEM Education, the
National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education, and the
Cybersecurity National Action Plan.
Thank you so much for the opportunity to testify today on a
topic that we at the NSF see as critical for our nation's
future. I will be pleased to answer any questions that you and
the other members of the committee may have.
[Prepared statement of Ms. Ferrini-Mundy follows:]
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Mr. Hurd. Well, Dr. Ferrini-Mundy, I have got to say, we
have only been doing this for five minutes, you have already
gotten me excited about a couple of things that you mentioned
in your opening remarks.
And also, I want to add I was a beneficiary of an NSF
program when I was in high school. I got to do an internship at
the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio in robotics,
and that got me excited about computer science, and that is why
I studied computer science at Texas A&M University. So I am a
big fan of what you all do. And this is something that I want
to make sure more kids like me have access to this. So thank
you for being here.
Mr. Montgomery, you are now recognized for five minutes.
STATEMENT OF SCOTT MONTGOMERY
Mr. Montgomery. Good afternoon, Chairman Hurd and members
of the committee. Thank you for the opportunity to testify
today. My name is Scott Montgomery. I'm the vice president and
chief technical strategist of the Intel Security Group, and my
testimony will focus on cybersecurity skills gap and what the
government, in collaboration with the private sector, can do to
close it.
I've been--I've spent 20 years building, designing,
testifying--or, excuse me, testing and certifying information
security and privacy solutions for a variety of public and
private sector organizations.
Intel is a global leader in computing innovation, designing
and building the essential foundational technologies that
support the world's computing devices. When you combine this
experience with Intel Security's market-leading cybersecurity
solutions, we bring a unique understanding of the challenges
threatening our nation's digital infrastructure and global e-
commerce.
Despite facing an ever-changing threat landscape, further
complicated by the sharp rise in Internet-enabled devices in
our personal lives, the job for security practitioners hasn't
changed: Protect vital services and data from theft,
manipulation, and loss due to external and internal
adversaries. We do, however, need to change the way we do our
job by focusing on ways to reduce security fragmentation,
automate tasks, and force multiply capabilities.
Organizations both in the public as well as private sector
are now more vulnerable in more places. Adversaries are
increasingly capable of commandeering strategic assets and
including the critical infrastructure, yet most organizations
still lack the resources necessary to adequately monitor their
networks and defend against these sophisticated attacks.
Earlier this year, the Center for Strategic and
International Studies, in partnership with Intel Security,
released ``Hacking the Skills Shortage,'' a global report
outlining the global talent crisis. The results of the research
were both stunning and informative.
A majority of respondents--82 percent--admitted to having a
shortage of cybersecurity skills, with 71 percent citing this
shortage as having a direct and measurable impact upon their
organization and making them more valuable hacking targets.
In 2015 alone, 209,000 cybersecurity jobs went unfilled in
the United States, in just the United States. Despite 1 in 4
respondents confirming their organizations have lost
proprietary data as a result of this specific skills gap, there
are no signs that this workforce shortage will abate in the
near term. Respondents estimated an average of 15 percent of
their company's available cybersecurity positions could go
fully unfilled by 2020.
If the demand for these professionals continues to outpace
the supply of qualified workers, the United States will face a
deficit of around one million workers in the next five to ten
years. With expanding attack surfaces and an increasing
advanced targeted attacks around the world, the need for a
technically stronger and numerically increased cyber workforce
is critical.
So one of the immediate steps we can take to address this
issue, in addition to many other sound policy recommendations,
the President's Cybersecurity National Action Plan, CNAP, calls
for a $62 million increase in spending to expand training and
educational programs. Specifically, the plan would build out
the existing CyberCorps Scholarship for Service program, which
provides cyber education scholarships in exchange for service
in the Federal civilian government. This investment is a great
step forward, but we need to be prepared to do a lot more.
In particular, we recommend an even larger financial
investment in existing Federal workforce and education
programs, a diversity of career paths for interested students,
and stronger coordination on these initiatives with the private
sector and industry.
As Intel Security vice president and general manager Chris
Young and Chairman Hurd have both urged in the past, the
government should consider the creation of a Cyber National
Guard program. The CyberCorps Scholarship for Service and
reserve programs are ideally situated for students looking to
pay back their scholarships up front with two or three years in
Federal service.
Also, at the State or Federal level, an expanded SFS or
SFS-style grant program could train and educate a new class of
cyber practitioners prepared to serve their government on a
full-time, part-time, or as-needed basis while gaining critical
experience with the latest private sector innovations.
The private sector must also be prepared to level-up its
collaboration with the government to ensure a steady supply of
worthwhile internships, co-ops, and training opportunities. In
the CSIS report, a lack of quality training opportunities was
cited as a significant reason why cyber practitioners seek
alternative employment. For this reason, it is not only
imperative that public sector entities compensate their cyber
professionals well but also provide ample opportunities for
employees to learn new skills and train on cutting-edge
technologies.
Intel supports these efforts through a number of
initiatives, including investments in STEM education for women
and girls, curriculum development, a robust paid internship
program, and partnerships with universities like Purdue, the
University of Massachusetts, and the U.S. Air Force Academy.
Finally, investing in more efficient technologies and
modernizing outdated IT systems will reduce the burden on
scarce human resources. The CNAP prioritizes this by calling
for a $3.1 billion IT modernization fund to transform
cybersecurity management. This initiative has received some
congressional support with the introduction and successful
markup of the MOVE IT Act, which would enable retirement,
replacement, and modernization of legacy IT that is difficult
to secure and expensive to maintain, and reward government
departments and agencies who go through harvesting money back
out of their programs.
Building out these education and workforce initiatives, in
tandem with investments in more efficient cyber technologies,
will make a vital down payment toward closing the cybersecurity
skills gap.
I would like to once again thank this distinguished panel
for giving me the opportunity to discuss these challenges and
strongly believe that public-private collaboration will
continue to be our best defense. Thank you.
[Prepared statement of Mr. Montgomery follows:]
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Mr. Hurd. Thank you, Mr. Montgomery, and thank you for the
reference of the MOVE IT Act, which we had to rename the MGT
Act, which passed this morning by the way, and that is a pretty
significant thing and it was because of the great leadership of
folks like Robin Kelly to make that happen.
And I also want to thank your organization and Ms. Kelly
because this idea of a Cyber National Guard really sunk in with
me at our field hearing in Chicago. And I am glad we went and
did that, and I am glad, through you all's participation, and
it really is what--you know, that kind of collaboration outside
the Beltway with, you know, participants, you know, outside the
government where you really get some of these cutting-edge
ideas. So thank you for that.
Mr. Bowman, welcome. Did you bring me any breakfast tacos?
Mr. Bowman. I should have. I ate them. Sorry.
Mr. Hurd. Well, Mr. Bowman, you are now recognized for your
opening remarks for five minutes.
STATEMENT OF GENE BOWMAN
Mr. Bowman. Thank you very much. Mr. Chairman and members
of the committee, I'm pleased to be here today speaking to you
on behalf of the Alamo Academies.
The Academies are an outstanding program providing
opportunities and clear pathways for young men and women to
achieve their American dream. I would like to briefly describe
the model, then spend the remainder of the time sharing a few
stories of our successful graduates who are today closing the
talent gap in the Federal IT career field, as well in the
private sector.
The Alamo Academies is an innovative STEM--you heard it
before, science, technology, engineering, mathematics--demand-
based model connecting high school juniors and seniors with
employers. These students earn 30 college credits at no
personal cost, they obtain nationally recognized industry
certificates, and they participate in an experiential learning
environment between their junior and senior summer, a paid
internship, the program's key component kind of like what you
did earlier in your career, where they have the opportunity
during this internship to apply the knowledge and skills they
learned in the college classroom in a real-world environment
leading to high-wage jobs or further higher education while
addressing critical workforce needs.
And let me tell you about five of our graduates who are
cyber warriors today. Two of them are 22, one is 19, and the
other two are 18 years old, and all five share the following
experiences. They participated in the Academy's Information
Technology Security Academy. They completed paid internships
with cybersecurity industry partners. They all have earned
multiple national industry certificates. They all competed in
the Air Force Association's CyberPatriot competition. They were
all on the Academy's team that won the local mayor's Cyber Cup
competition as the best CyberPatriot team in the San Antonio
region. And each of their teams also made it to the top 12 in
the Nation and competed in the CyberPatriot National
Championship in Washington, D.C.
As a side note and bragging a little bit, the Academy's
team has won the mayor's Cyber Cup and advanced the national
champions competition five out of the last six years. Two of
these young men, Mario and Robert, were on the National
Championship Team in 2012. Both Mario and Robert and the other
14 members accomplished their paid internship with the
Department of Defense at the Air Force's 33rd Network Warfare
Squadron as entry-level security analysts. Each was awarded a
secret clearance at 17 years of age and also offered part-time
employment during their senior year helping defend our nation.
At 22, Mario already has six years of intense cybersecurity
experience supporting DOD initiatives, and shortly after
graduation from the Academies, Mario was offered a position at
the Pentagon right down the road here as a computer network
defense analyst with an interim top-secret SCI clearance. He
recently returned to San Antonio as a lead cybersecurity
analyst with a DOD contractor supporting the Air Force's Weapon
and Tactics Team known as the Computer Emergency Response Team,
which I know you're familiar with.
Mario has also added recruiter to his duties. He recruited
two of our recent graduates to be part of our Cyber Warrior
talent pipeline. These two graduates, Reed and Kyle, are both
18. They're CyberPatriot national finalists, completed paid
internships with cybersecurity industry partners, and are
starting their careers as tier II security analysts.
Finally, two other examples, Skylar and Robert, Skylar is
19 years old, CyberPatriot national finalist--seeing a theme
here--and is employed as a security analyst with the same
cybersecurity consulting agency in San Antonio that he
accomplished his paid internship with, a smart move by that
company, growing their own workforce.
Robert, 22, has taken his cybersecurity talent into the
private sector. He's a security analyst, is a member of the
Information Security Operations Center for his IT company in
San Antonio. All of these young men have accelerated their
careers with great salaries, benefits, and no college debt.
They're having a transformational impact on their families and
our community. These outstanding graduate stories are part of
today's submitted written testimony.
So the moral of this story, a solid model, the Alamo
Academies, a community collaborative with college-level
instruction, national industry certificates integrated into the
curriculum, connected to industry through paid internships
where the student receives real-world experiences and mentoring
and providing opportunities to participate in competitive
programs like CyberPatriot. It's producing outstanding talent
immediately out of high school to help close the talent gap in
Federal IT and the private sector.
I want to thank you for your time and the opportunity to
share the Alamo Academies story.
[Prepared statement of Mr. Bowman follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Hurd. Mr. Bowman, thank you for that. And it gives me
hope that we are producing the kind of talent we need in order
to defend our digital infrastructure.
Mr. Bowman. Thank you.
Mr. Hurd. Mr. Cambry, you are now recognized for your
opening remarks for five minutes.
STATEMENT OF EMILE CAMBRY
Mr. Cambry. Thank you, Chairman Hurd, Ranking Member Kelly,
and all the esteemed members of the Committee on Oversight and
Government Reform for the opportunity to testify for you today.
My name is Emile Cambry. I'm the oldest child of an
immigrant from Haiti and an African-American woman on the west
side of Chicago. In their youth, my parents endured the
frustration of economic hardship and the pain and indignity of
racism and anti-immigrant sentiment firsthand.
But they overcame the frustration, they overcame the pain,
and they overcame the indignity to become a doctor and a nurse.
They had the work ethic and the access to opportunity necessary
to do what statistics said they never would do--succeed.
And they made sure they did everything possible to give my
younger brother and sister the opportunities to overcome the
obstacles necessary for us to attend top institutions. Thanks
to their sacrifice, I was able to study economics at the
University of Chicago and business at Northwestern University's
graduate school.
I've since had the opportunity to work at JP Morgan Chase
in their investment banking unit and teach graduate-level
business and economic courses at three graduate institutions.
My parents and all of my life's experience up until three
years ago helped me realize one thing. Entire communities and
generations of hardworking, incredibly talented men, women, and
youth are not being given access to the very opportunities that
helped my family overcome the hardships in their life.
That's why I founded an organization that addresses that,
BLUE1647, to bring opportunity to opportunity deserts across
the country. BLUE1647 transforms lives and communities by going
into these opportunity deserts and providing residents with
access to 21st century tech skills so they can too access the
opportunities necessary for them to overcome the hardships in
their life.
The formula was simple: Go where the need is greatest;
teach those interested in the most marketable skills; and see
people overcome poverty, racism, and other hardships in a way
that you've never seen before.
And today, I'd like to take the time to talk about how the
various programs and public sector partnerships I've had the
chance to build are turning communities with few prospects into
hubs for tech rock stars that can and will yield an ecosystem
of diverse talent to fill the 1.2 million new tech jobs that
will need to be filled by 2020 in this country, and that
includes Federal IT.
And already we're starting to see that vision come to
fruition. While we were founded in Chicago just three years
ago, thanks to the support of people like Congresswoman Kelly,
we've since grown to have our tech centers present in eight
cities and serve over 16,000 youth and adults. Our classes have
included everything from app and software development,
traditional IT, cybersecurity, and the Internet of Things.
Physical location of our innovation centers are important,
which is why we target in lower socioeconomic areas, and 95
percent of our students are black or Latino.
But we don't water down our curriculum because of space,
place, age, or income. Our software development curriculum is
Department of Labor-certified for our technology apprenticeship
program.
I'd like to take a moment to highlight some of the programs
and success stories. Our 1919 Program is our Women in Tech and
Entrepreneurship program. Since its inception a year ago, over
200 women have participated in our cohort-based program, which
is 12 weeks in length. We have various tracks and have created
a community approach for skill development in IT. We will soon
be adding tracks in project management and cybersecurity.
We have over a 97 percent net promoter score, and an
additional 75 women have begun our program this week. All of
these women are black or Latino.
Our 21st Century Youth Project is for students as young as
4 and as old as 17 where we have had some great successes in
cohort-based training. We have had students intern at Google,
Answers.com, Accenture, and Microsoft, including starting their
own ventures. Over 70 students have gone on to matriculate into
computer science and engineering programs.
We have hosted the Chief Officers for the United States
Digital Services Team, United States Chief Data Officer D.J.
Patil, and have held general recruiting events around Federal
IT opportunities and careers. Over 200 were in attendance for
one event, and the major takeaway was that you can serve your
country using the technology skills, which was a new concept to
many of our attendees.
We have executed some tremendous public and private
partnerships to plant seeds in areas you would not expect. In
St. Louis, we are a partner in the Jobs-Plus program, a Federal
HUD program over four years to increase employment prospects in
housing developments. The housing development we focused on is
the Clinton Peabody development, where we became--where before
the program started had a 68 percent unemployment rate, 93
percent were led by a single mother. At the development, we are
partnered with the St. Louis Housing Authority, the workforce
development arm of the--St. Louis, SLATE, and the NAACP of St.
Louis.
BLUE1647 installed community Wi-Fi, so residents can
participate in having Internet access, and we focus on bridging
the digital divide.
We conduct technology classes for adults during the day and
provide afterschool technology immersion for youth after
school.
In addition to working with one housing development in St.
Louis, we started working in six housing developments in Los
Angeles this week. We do--the more we can replicate our model
and support other programs like ours, we ultimately create a
pipeline of tech talent who will be naturally interested in
technology careers
Thank you for your time, I'll gladly take any questions
that members of the committee might have.
[Prepared statement of Mr. Cambry follows:]
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Mr. Hurd. Mr. Cambry, I am usually at these hearings--I
usually get outraged when I hear opening remarks, but this time
I am inspired by what is going on, so thank you for being here
for that.
And I believe the ranking member is going to submit her
opening remarks for the record, is that correct? Without
objection, so moved.
Mr. Hurd. I am going to recognize myself for five minutes
and go back and forth with Ms. Kelly until we get the going to
go to the Floor for votes. And, Ms. Ferrini-Mundy, my first
question for you is these SFS CyberCorps, you said there is
about a little over 2,000 graduates from that program starting
in 2001. You said about 600 active. What is the head room? Have
we hit the cap?
Ms. Ferrini-Mundy. Well, we're always looking for
institutions that can come into the fold. We're funding about
62 different institutions right now, and so a big piece of our
activity is to build capacity in more places so that we can
broaden out the access for students more widely.
Mr. Hurd. So the scholarships, it is basically a
scholarship. There is a dollar amount ----
Ms. Ferrini-Mundy. Right.
Mr. Hurd.--it is a range, right, depending on ----
Ms. Ferrini-Mundy. Right.
Mr. Hurd.--the institution. How many more of these could we
be doing? Let's assume we have, you know, miraculously you
can--I'll let you borrow my magic wand. We have these
institutions. Do we have an idea of, you know, is it 600 more
students, is it 100 more students, is it 10 more students?
Ms. Ferrini-Mundy. I mean, we could get back to you with a
closer analysis of that. It varies by institution type.
Mr. Hurd. Right.
Ms. Ferrini-Mundy. We're trying to build up our involvement
with community colleges so that we again ----
Mr. Hurd. Yes.
Ms. Ferrini-Mundy.--see more of a pipeline.
Mr. Hurd. Could we make--I am sure Mr. Bowman would love to
be the first, you know, to help be one of the ones that help
make that--I don't want to speak for you, Mr. Bowman, but I am
assuming you are not part of the 62 institutions that receive
some of these CyberCorps scholarships, is that correct?
Mr. Bowman. Mr. Hurd, we're not today, but we surely can be
tomorrow.
Mr. Hurd. Making things happen, huh, Robin Kelly, right
here?
And one other thing, and, you know, I am interested in the
CyberCorps primarily to figure this idea of a Cyber National
Guard, right? These are going to be folks that don't go
necessarily in the DOD or the NSA but Social Security
Administration, Department of Homeland Security, Department of
Interior. We need people there. And to be able to get them out
of university when they know that they are going to spend X
number of years there and that they probably have a job already
waiting, a good-paying job with a company that is willing to
loan them back to the Federal Government is important. So I
have a lot of questions around that.
But the Computer Science for All program, is that something
that BLUE1647 is able to tap into? And I would love your
thoughts on whether that is, and, Mr. Cambry, you know, whether
that is something that you are even interested in.
Ms. Ferrini-Mundy. I mean, absolutely. We have a number of
different places where that program is being funded, most--
primarily in our Innovative Technology Experiences for Students
and Teachers, and we accept applications from all eligible
places. We'd love to have great connections that go beyond the
set of institutions that we typically see.
So inclusion is a very strong emphasis for us. The other
place where we are seeing phenomenal engagement from
communities, from community-based organizations, from a variety
of industry sectors is under our new INCLUDES program, which
has 7 of its 37 First Awards are collaboratives among community
organizations focused on high-tech engagement with minority
students.
Mr. Hurd. Mr. Cambry, are you willing to participate and
learn more about it?
Mr. Cambry. Absolutely. And for centers like our housing
developments, we really look at that as truly a model that we
can truly expand and scale, and having programs that--with the
curriculum that's already tried and tested only makes our jobs
easier, which is trying to create a culture of technology
development to get people excited and engaged and pursue paths
and careers in technology.
Mr. Hurd. Great. Thank you. And back to the CyberCorps for
a second, the CNAP talks about investing more money into that
program. So, again, when you get back to me on the details,
where do we think that headroom is, right, because, look, in
Texas alone in 2015 we had 42,000 computing jobs that went
unfilled, right? And we are not producing enough to fill that,
and that is just in private sector, I believe. And the need in
the Federal Government is even more.
And so I am going to stop there and turn it over to my
ranking member and come back and ask some more questions about
kind of structurally how we can do this in the private sector.
My good friend and the distinguished gentlelady from the
great State of Illinois is now recognized for five minutes.
Ms. Kelly. Thank you so much. First, I just want to
congratulate you on all your hard work with the bill that was
passed today. It showed bipartisanship, which people don't
think we can do, but we have done that on this committee. And
welcome all of you. I just, though, have to give a special
shout-out to Mr. Cambry. Emails on my STEM Council that I
started when I came in the Congress--I have a STEM Council and
the STEM Academy, and he has helped us greatly, so thank you so
much. And thanks for all of your testimony.
I too am very, very concerned about the jobs that go
unfulfilled but also the lack of Latinos and African-Americans
that are prepared to fill those jobs. And it is extremely
important. And when I think about a district like mine where
our unemployment rate is--even though everything has gone down
but it is still higher than the national average. And then when
I visit companies and I hear that they can't find--they don't
even need to be college graduates but they still can't find
people to fill those positions. So I am very interested in how
we can diversify and fill those positions. And they are
positions that are not minimum-paying jobs but good-paying jobs
that you can have middle-class income and do the things that
you need to do.
I had a set of questions, but listening to you guys, what
more do you think that Congress needs to do to help reach these
goals of filling these jobs, more diversification? Do you see--
besides things we are doing today, how can we be more helpful,
I guess? And that is anybody. Don't be shy.
Mr. Montgomery. I think one of the things that is already
in motion, if you look at this administration, this has been a
very forward-thinking, forward-leaning administration with
respect to cyber, the number of policies, the number of
directives, the risk management framework itself.
One of the things I would urge is that regardless of what
happens shortly that that energy continue because this is a
topic that we can't take a four-year break on ----
Ms. Kelly. Right.
Mr. Montgomery.--we can't take a four-hour break on, we
can't take a four-minute break on.
One of the things that I think would actually help in
addition to that, Intel in 2015 we've committed $300 million to
the similar topics as my fellow panelists with respect to women
and underrepresented minorities to make the workforce more
diverse specifically in technology.
But there has to be--there has to be some protection for
the U.S. Government for its own employees. And what I would
suggest is that Congress look at modifying the way that
talented Federal cyber employees are compensated, retained, and
trained because the lure to the private sector is intense
because, as you mentioned, Ms. Kelly, the number of spots that
are open is so demanding that people are looking down the
street when the only change is money because of that intense
demand. And we need to make sure that our Federal workforce in
particular--and this is what Congress can help with--remains
highly paid, highly trained, highly effective, and highly
motivated to stay.
Mr. Bowman. If I may, Ms. Kelly, thank you for the question
about what Congress can do.
For the Alamo Academies, a community collaborative program,
homegrown, one of the things that drive that model with our
industry partners is a pull system--not a push--a pull system
to industry demands and requirements to meet their needs.
And, as Chairman Hurd indicated, he had an internship with
Southwest Research Institute that kind of got him excited about
his career and got him on a pathway. That's exactly what the
Academies are doing today with this model.
We had over 45 internships last year alone just from the IT
Academy and about 120 internships in all five academies. That
model is limited because our capacity depends on how many
internships we can get with companies. So any incentive--and
many of our industry partners on the Academies board would love
to come and help you work on that issue. Any incentive that can
encourage and motivate companies to take on these internship
responsibilities even at high school level would show that high
school young men and women can accomplish these duties and they
can do it successfully if they're in the right model and
they're mentored properly. And we're showing that this is
working and it's been working for the last 16 years.
In regards to minorities, though, San Antonio is a
majority-minority community, and over 70 percent of our
graduates are Hispanics today and 6 percent are African-
American. So I think we're achieving that in our local
community and modeled like the Academy can do that in whatever
community that they're in like Mr. Cambry here, you know.
You've got a couple of great models here.
But incentivizing our industry partners to want to take on
these internships, there is some cost to them to do that, but
the benefit to homegrown product pays off hugely when they
come, and that loyalty and that culture they get by getting
exposed to it early in life. And they don't have any bad
habits. They're coming in very young, and it's easy to get a
secret clearance because they haven't done anything bad yet.
[Laughter.]
Ms. Kelly. Did you have any thoughts about ----
Mr. Cambry. Yes, and I will just add into that. One of the
reasons why we pursued this apprenticeship model for software
development was because it gave us stamp of approval that we
can take to employers to say they've been trained, this
curriculum has been certified, and on top of that we're trying
to include folks that otherwise might have been excluded.
So I think that, you know, in addition to what Mr. Bowman
has mentioned, any incentives that we can get more employers on
board that can give us some opportunities to folks that
otherwise wouldn't have gotten them because, once again, as he
mentioned, when you don't have college debt and you're still
able to pursue some revenue for your family, and especially to
be able to jump into the middle class, it has a tremendous
effect not just for that family but for that community to say
that this is a possible pathway and this is a pathway we can be
successful in in a relatively short amount of time with some
very intensive training.
Ms. Kelly. How do you get the word out about your programs
because that is always my concern, too, that sometimes entities
like yours don't know what is out there for you as far as
grants because maybe we don't do a good enough job getting the
word out, but also how do the young people know that you exist?
What do you do to get the word out? Any order.
Mr. Montgomery. May I just--so it's funny that you're
asking that because I was thinking the exact same thing. I--
with respect to Mr. Bowman's comments, I think there would be a
line of employers with paid internships and programs where a
matriculating student would enter the internship's
organization. I think people would line up around the block
because they don't have an alternative today. And I think the
challenge is one of awareness.
One of the things that we're doing--and we've sort of
relegated our efforts to higher education--is with respect to
that exact kind of awareness between local centers such as the
University of Massachusetts. We reach out to local employers
who are having trouble employing and doing internship programs
for kids who are currently in hands-on programs at the
university.
I think industry can help by joining forces with the kinds
of organizations that NSF and other government organizations
have designated to say, look, here's a workforce that wants to
work. They actually want to work, and they want to come help
you with your problems. We constantly get asked for those
resources. We don't have them either. So I think it is
absolutely a challenge of awareness, but I think industry can
help with these kinds of outreach as well.
Mr. Bowman. If I may, opportunities like this to be able to
come to Washington, D.C., and talk about programs that are
being successful in the communities that are working together,
there's been historical bias that you had to be a four-year
graduate to be in the IT career field. And fortunately, the
last six or seven years, programs like the Academies connecting
with opportunities like the Air Force Association CyberPatriot
program where they're getting these young men and women exposed
to these opportunities so much earlier in life that you're
creating that skill set that they can do the job.
And now, we have enough--well, we don't have enough but
we're getting graduates out there in the community with
Department of Defense, Defense contractors, and then showing
them that they can do this work. So we don't have the companies
lined up yet, but I believe in just a few short years with more
marketing and exposure and seeing how there's multiple career
pathways.
You go to college--Robert, one of our examples, went
straight to college and came out and got offered a job a year
before he graduated. One of them went right into the workforce.
Mario went up to Defense with the Pentagon, so he used a career
path. And the other three are using a hybrid. They're going to
community college, getting associate degrees, minimal debt,
getting scholarships while they're working, continuing their
higher education because they see the benefit of it, but they
also have that experience.
So here is young men and women getting exposed to that
culture and excited about it, and industry is starting to get
excited about it as well. So the more we can do to encourage,
let our industry partners know that these young men and women
can do this work, then we're going to have them lined up at the
door. And we can meet that need. Thank you.
Ms. Ferrini-Mundy. Could I just add one other dimension to
think about in this context? And that has to do with the
rapidly changing landscape of the cybersecurity world. And so
at a place like the National Science Foundation, it's very
important for our research investments in such areas as access
control and cyber physical systems and privacy and data
analytics and so forth. All of that research is teaching us
about this rapidly changing landscape.
And it's important, I believe, in thinking about the
curricula, the experiences that students get in their
preparation for us to keep in mind that this is a dynamic field
where we need to continually be updated, be offering internship
and authentic experiences so students are working at the
cutting edge as early on as they can in this domain, which is
part of what makes it both exciting and challenging. It has to
stay very current.
Ms. Kelly. With the academy we have, the council actually--
we have someone from the elementary level and the two-year and
then four-year because that was--and then the industry people
because the concern was getting the young people interested
anyway, to whet their appetite, but then making sure the high
school and the community colleges are teaching what needed to
be taught.
Did you have any ----
Mr. Cambry. I'll just add in one last thing. Any time you
have a little bit of success and one gets a job or an
opportunity, it creates a ripple effect. Yesterday, I got word
that one of our students, we--we partnered with an adult school
in Compton, California. One of the students got their industry
certification in cybersecurity, and they recently got a job
at--offered a full-time job at Hewlett-Packard, and all of a
sudden I get 50 emails today about folks who say, hey, what is
it that your program does? And so I think those kind of small
successes have a ripple effect, but you're starting to see
people to say I can be successful in this space.
Mr. Montgomery. One of the ----
Mr. Hurd. Go ahead.
Mr. Montgomery. Thank you. One of the things that I think
Homeland and the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation program
did well was it put together a framework for organizations to
understand their cybersecurity posture, where their gaps were,
and how to improve. One of the things that we could do
similarly is to create this clearinghouse of these kinds of
organizations and academies that have interns available, what
their level of training is, what their level of certification
is, where their location is in order to incent employers, both
government and nongovernment, to have a place to go to fill
this need even if it's with interns in temporary assignments
because any work that they're doing is going to help the
organization, as well as the candidate get some real-time
hands-on experience.
But that clearinghouse of these organizations like Mr.
Cambry's, like Mr. Bowman's, I'm not aware of it. That would be
ideal because then people can shop by their location, shop by
their need, and help benefit the local community as well.
Mr. Hurd. I am going to recognize myself for another five
minutes.
So I think, you know, here there is consensus that there is
a need in the IT workforce for professionals who have received
their skills through training, certificates, or a degree that
is not a traditional four-year model. Is that consensus there?
And, Dr. Ferrini-Mundy, the CyberCorps program can be used for
those types of things, is that correct?
Ms. Ferrini-Mundy. Certainly. We--particularly in the
capacity-building area, we can be funding the design of
innovative curricular approaches, different durations of
training, and particularly the connection to the two-year
colleges.
Mr. Hurd. Yes. But scholarships as well?
Ms. Ferrini-Mundy. Yes, scholarships also go to two-year
college students.
Mr. Hurd. Got you.
Ms. Ferrini-Mundy. Yes.
Mr. Hurd. So what do we need to do to grow the program? And
what do we need to do to grow the program? And just so I am
clear, if I am a senior in high school, do I apply to OPM for
this scholarship and then take it to a school or do I have to
apply it to one of the 62 institutions for that specific
program?
Ms. Ferrini-Mundy. Right. So you have to apply to one of
the 62 institutions, and OPM does a very good job in
publicizing these institutions and the program, so that's one
thing.
But your other question about what would it take to grow
this program in our fiscal year 2017 request, we have indicated
that we'd like to lay the groundwork with an increase for SFS
alumni to be available over the course of their careers to help
the Federal Government respond to cybersecurity challenges. So
this is related to the reserve idea, to the cyber surge corps
idea.
But at the same time for us at the National Science
Foundation, I believe we're beginning to think about this
systemically. So we do have the SFS program with its
scholarships, but I mentioned our INCLUDES program, our
Advanced Technology Education program, the Computer Science for
All initiative. And I think that that leads me to believe a
more systemic look by us inside our agency at how we think
about the pathways, at how we kind of build a context, connect
to the research. That would help us address the challenges that
we're trying to address in a more comprehensive way.
Mr. Hurd. Good copy. Mr. Montgomery, your point about the
draw of the private sector, now, the value in, you know, the
CyberCorps or a National Guard is saying you are going to
commit to the Federal Government for a length of time. If it is
the length of time of what your scholarship is or we say it is
four years or something, that is what gets someone into the
ground floor at protecting digital infrastructure.
And then if we add on top of that that there is
participating entities or companies that are willing to help
loan those folks back, you know, as their National Guard
experience, how do we structure that in such a way that it is
not disruptive to business operations?
Mr. Montgomery. There's actually some great Federal
examples of this kind of loaning program. There's a program in
particular out of OSD called the Corporate Fellows Program
where--and this is a little bit different. This isn't students
necessarily, but the model could be very, very similar. An
officer grade 6 is loaned out for a year. The government pays
for the salary; the private company pays for all of the travel
and expenses for the military officer. But they're embedded
with the company for a year. And the thought is that they'll
return to their rotation with cutting-edge management technique
and experience with respect to what private industry is doing.
I can see the same exact thing being--with respect to this
National Guard of Cyber Warriors as well because the demands in
both industry and the private sector is so intense. Getting
someone loaned out for the course of a year, the only
difference is the company themselves would pay for the
privilege. But it could be that kind of fellows program where
it is a rotation in, it's a rotation out. But I would urge you
to investigate that program because those paperwork--that
paperwork is already developed. We're already doing those kinds
of things.
Mr. Hurd. Yes, because the framework can be that you have
these kids coming from high school and that they are going to
school, whether it is, you know, four-year, two-year, or
something else, but then the set of companies that want to see
these Cyber National Guardsmen and women are also the ones
providing internships during that educational process as well,
right, in order to help hone that so when they finally finish
whatever educational opportunities they are looking at.
That is kind of, you know, the concept that I envision of
this program to make sure that we ultimately are having a
cross-pollination of skill sets between the public and the
private sector. Is that crazy?
Mr. Montgomery. Not at all. The number of occasions--when
people think about cyber today, they think about a breach, but
cyber is a 24-hour occupation. And the number of occasions
where a private industry organization has a spike in demand for
labor is routine. If you think about anyone with respect to the
vertical markets like retail or banking, there are--it is
cyclical. They have more demand at different times than they do
at other times. And the ramp-up for a guard contingent would be
an important bolster to their workforce.
Also, with respect to Presidential Directive 41 where they
established the guidelines for what happens in a government
breach, the same thing can be said for the private sector as
well. There is a criminal element that the FBI investigates.
There is a hygiene element that Homeland is responsible for.
And there is constant need for updates and hygiene and good
best practices that this National Guard could take care of an
ongoing basis that companies are struggling to find good supply
for.
Mr. Hurd. Got you. Dr. Ferrini-Mundy, what is the first
step that an entity like the Alamo colleges need to do in order
to be part of the 62 participating agencies in the CyberCorps?
Ms. Ferrini-Mundy. Well, I think that Mr. Bowman and I need
to exchange business cards and talk about the various
possibilities for getting to know the National Science
Foundation and its ----
Mr. Hurd. I think we can make that happen.
Ms. Ferrini-Mundy. Okay. It's starting already.
Mr. Hurd. And then what about for an organization like
BLUE1647 to participate in the Computer Science for All
program?
Ms. Ferrini-Mundy. Same response. And we can point you to
the programs that would be, I think, the best-suited to the
particular organizations here.
Mr. Hurd. Excellent.
Ms. Ferrini-Mundy. Very exciting. We're looking always to
broaden involvement and to reach out more generally.
Mr. Hurd. Great. I would now like to recognize for five
minutes the gentleman from the Commonwealth of Virginia, Mr.
Connolly.
Mr. Connolly. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And welcome to our
panel.
Gosh, there are so many facets of this subject. Let's start
for a second with internships. I don't know if you know, Dr.
Ferrini-Mundy, but when you compare the Federal Government's
success with internships to the success in the private sector,
you want to guess how well we do?
Ms. Ferrini-Mundy. No, I'd prefer to have you explain. I
don't--I'm not familiar with the ----
Mr. Connolly. Anyone from the private sector want to take a
guess at the rough percentage of interns who are eligible and
hired for employment in terms of a successful internship? It is
very high. It is, you know, well above 60 percent private
sector. In some private sector companies it is like--well, I
won't name one that hired my daughter--but it is in the 90
percentile.
We are in the single digits, Dr. Ferrini-Mundy in the
Federal Government. It is a fiasco. There is no systematic
mentoring. There is no systematic exposure to all aspects of an
agency's mission or most of them. There is no morale booster.
We actually have people who leave when they kind of talk in any
kind of exit interview, if there is one, who say I would rather
put my head through a pencil sharpener than ever work for the
Federal Government again.
We don't see it apparently as a tool for recruiting the
next generation or motivating the next generation or tailoring
the next generation, which the private sector systematically
does. Otherwise, why have an internship program? Why not make
it work for both sides? You try us out for size and we are
trying you out, but we have done some screening and orientation
so the probability of you sticking around with us is high. And
our desire for making a permanent job offer is also high.
Otherwise, it is very inefficient, and we are actually turning
people off to our mission.
I don't mean to suggest by saying this that you in any way,
shape, or form have responsibility. I just point out it is a
subject I looked into, and I was appalled at the data I found
and what a complete opportunity cost our current internship
efforts are in the Federal Government.
And it is relevant to the topic at hand because we can't
afford that, especially when it comes to the Federal IT issue
and cyber in particular because our IT experts in the Federal
Government are aging out. And if you looked at the average age
of our counterpart in the private sector, it is much younger.
So the private sector does not have a problem recruiting
the next generation to handle the mission. We are. And the only
choice we have, it seems to me, is to recruit a younger
generation. Well, what are the tools at hand for doing that?
And I worry about that. The pay gap is growing. The
desirability of the workplace can be a challenge. I think it is
very hard for a Federal recruiter to go to a university campus
and say I see a 30-year Federal career in your future and you
are going to love it.
Now, partly, we are to blame. Congress has done a great job
in making the Federal workplace a less desirable place in
public imagination. We have disparaged the workforce, we have
frozen salaries, we have cut benefits. None of that brings any
glory on us, and I think frankly was designed in some cases to
do just that, make it less desirable as a career choice.
But we can't afford to continue to do that, certainly not
in the sphere that the chairman and ranking member here are
exploring because IT is just too important. Security is
involved, national security is involved, privacy is involved.
And so I think this is a critical topic, and I think there are
things we can do to make it easier on ourselves to do that
recruiting and to make it more attractive, internship programs
being one of them. That is not rocket science. And the private
sector has lots of models that are profoundly successful that
we could emulate or learn from or benchmark against if we would
only try.
But longer term, we are going to have to suspend some
normal civil service workplace protections if we are going to
have fellows who go in and out of the government. That is not
so easy. That is really not so easy. I wish it were, so we are
going to have to be less rule-driven if we are going to do that
while still protecting everybody involved. We are going to have
to look at more flexibility, obviously, in pay scales. If we
are not willing to do that, we will never attract a talent
comparable to that we face in the private sector.
So I think there are lots of issues here for us to continue
to explore. I thank you so much for having this hearing because
I think this is a critical piece of what we are trying to do in
IT modernization and upgrading the Federal Government.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Hurd. Amen, brother.
Last round of questions from me and then we will wrap it
up. And, Dr. Ferrini-Mundy, are the folks that are
participating in the CyberCorps, are they staying around in the
Federal Government? You gave some stats at the very beginning.
Can you characterize that for me?
Ms. Ferrini-Mundy. Well, I would like to first just mention
briefly how excited they are as they enter the Federal
Government, and so although the incentive of a scholarship is
powerful and the payback requirement is definitely there, this
jobs fair that we do in conjunction with OPM every January
attracts 100 Federal agencies, and students are hired on the
spot and do their security clearances while they're ----
Mr. Hurd. And this is a jobs fair for ----
Ms. Ferrini-Mundy. For the SFS graduates.
Mr. Hurd. Okay.
Ms. Ferrini-Mundy. So we know that they're welcomed into
the Federal Government with--warmly, and the data that we have
indicates that about 70 percent stay beyond their service
requirement. So we are again tracking to see how long they stay
and what they do, but their entry is very quick and smooth and
they're quite in demand.
Mr. Hurd. And how does--I don't know if it is NSF or OPM.
How do they prioritize which agencies are in need of these
potential SFS or is it this--it is a free-for-all and you come
to this job fair and that is how you do it?
Ms. Ferrini-Mundy. I think I--it's my understanding that
there is no prioritization particularly, but the agencies show
up, they make themselves available, they talk with students.
And we'd love to invite the members of the subcommittee to join
us next year when we go through it. It's quite fascinating.
But, as I understand it, there's no ----
Mr. Hurd. Yes.
Ms. Ferrini-Mundy. It's an open discussion.
Mr. Hurd. Please do. And in my remaining three minutes and
18 seconds, I want to go down the line. And, Mr. Cambry, I want
to start with you. This notion of a Cyber National Guard, I
think you are attracting people in from areas that may not be
exposed to this. We can expose them to, you know, the
CyberCorps program. We can expose them to institute like the
Alamo Academies, equivalents in your neck of the words. And
then we have companies like Intel that are interested in hiring
them.
What do you see is kind of the next step in trying to
achieve that vision? And that is really--my question down the
line--and, Mr. Cambry, you are going to have the last word.
Mr. Cambry. For us, it always has been can we change the
narrative so people can see themselves being successful in
these positions? So that's kind of the standpoint we took since
we first started.
Now, our standpoint is to also convince the employers that
there is some value to investing in these folks from the
community and other nontraditional settings. We've also been
able to partner with colleges, community colleges, and a whole
host of other people as part of this ecosystem of kind of
support.
What that next step for us has always been, partnering with
organizations that either do the placement or that have those
direct connections to those employers because, once again, the
more that we can focus on our students and our constituent base
and not as much on trying to find the perfect match with the
employers, it makes our job easier because then we can push
harder downstream and really start cultivating that level of
talent and really focus even more on our curriculum, placement,
and being able to do the testing necessary to make sure they're
ready.
Mr. Hurd. Thank you. And thank you for being here. And
everybody, the remaining--you have got 30 seconds to answer
that question. Mr. Bowman, you are recognized for 30 seconds.
Mr. Bowman. Chairman Hurd, thanks again for the
opportunity. So it's real simple. Companies that are willing to
invest in an intern get to indoctrinate this young man and
woman to their culture. And what they're finding is the
retention is off the charts. Sometimes it's the first paycheck
that these young men and women have received, so they're
bleeding that company's blood, that color, forever. Their
loyalty is off the charts. So if you invest in it, you get a
positive return on investment.
Businesses will not be participating in a program like the
Alamo Academies going into their 16th year if there was not a
positive return on investment. And internships is that secret
ingredient to getting these young men and women exposed just
like yourself when you had yours at Southwest Research and here
you are today. And that's a pathway to success, so I'm very
much for it.
Thank you for the opportunity.
Mr. Hurd. Thanks for being here. Mr. Montgomery?
Mr. Montgomery. I think demand is so intense that
organizations will take a flyer. What I'd love to see is focus
on a clearinghouse where the kids are made available to
potential employers because they'll come. They'll absolutely
come.
Mr. Hurd. Absolutely. Dr. Ferrini-Mundy, take us out.
Ms. Ferrini-Mundy. Thank you so much, Chairman Hurd,
Congresswoman Kelly. This has been wonderful and exciting to
talk about this topic. Two points that I'd like to leave us
with, one is the critical importance of developing and seeking
talent broadly across all groups from this country that have
been underrepresented in the STEM fields, in the IT fields, and
in the cybersecurity fields. We need the diversity of this
nation to be brought to bear on these challenges.
And second point is that through public-private
collaboration, the government and the private sector can work
together to understand the changing needs in this domain and
the kinds of experiences, certifications, assessments, ability
to be certain that people are ready to step in as needed over
the course of their career in and out of government so that we
are taking the very best talent and helping them learn and grow
throughout their careers.
Mr. Hurd. I would like to thank our witnesses for taking
the time to appear before us today. What you guys do is
important to educating our kids and the future of our country,
so thank you for that.
And if there is no further business, without objection, the
subcommittee stands adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 4:31 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]
APPENDIX
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