Department of Defense Comprehensive Cyber Workforce Strategy Act of 2026

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3619 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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119th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 3619

   To require the Secretary of Defense to develop a cyber workforce 
    strategy for the Department of Defense, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            January 13, 2026

Mr. Peters (for himself and Mr. Rounds) introduced the following bill; 
  which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Armed Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To require the Secretary of Defense to develop a cyber workforce 
    strategy for the Department of Defense, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Department of Defense Comprehensive 
Cyber Workforce Strategy Act of 2026''.

SEC. 2. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE CYBER WORKFORCE STRATEGY.

    (a) Strategy and Report Required.--Not later than January 31, 2027, 
the Secretary of Defense shall, acting through the Chief Information 
Officer of the Department of Defense and the Assistant Secretary of 
Defense for Cyber Policy and in consultation with the Chief Information 
Officers and Principal Cyber Advisors of the military departments--
            (1) develop a comprehensive cyber workforce strategy; and
            (2) submit to the Committee on Armed Services of the Senate 
        and the Committee on Armed Services of the House of 
        Representatives a report on the strategy developed under 
        paragraph (1).
    (b) Contents.--The report required by subsection (a)(2) shall 
include the following:
            (1) An assessment of progress achieved and remaining gaps 
        in implementation of the 2023-2027 Department of Defense Cyber 
        Workforce Strategy, including identification of elements that 
        should be continued, modified, or discontinued in the strategy 
        developed under subsection (a)(1).
            (2) A descriptive analysis of the Defense Cyber Workforce 
        Framework (in this section referred to as the ``Framework''), 
        including the goals, activities, milestones, and key 
        performance indicators used by the Department of Defense to 
        measure progress and assess the effectiveness of the 
        implementation of the strategy required by subsection (a)(1).
            (3) Assessment of the scope of the affected workforce for 
        the Framework, including specific workforce numbers, vacancy 
        numbers, work roles, or other statistical data relating to 
        personnel system metrics.
            (4) Identification of progress of the Department in 
        implementing the Framework based on the goals, activities, 
        milestones, and key performance indicators described in 
        paragraph (2).
            (5) Identification of any issues, problems, or roadblocks 
        identified by the Department in implementing the Framework, as 
        well as any adjustments required to measurements of progress or 
        inclusions of new goals, activities, milestones, key 
        performance indicators, or work roles since publication of such 
        framework, and any steps taken by the Department to overcome 
        issues or lack of authority to address roadblocks.
            (6) Opportunities to leverage support from non-Department 
        entities, or of any workforce or talent management authorities 
        that exist within other Federal agencies in which inclusion in 
        the Framework might benefit the Department.
            (7) The availability of commercial tools that support 
        Framework talent management processes and might enhance 
        performance or effectiveness, including for workforce 
        qualification and certification tracking, talent identification 
        and tracking, tagging for additional skill identifiers in 
        existing personnel management systems, or enhancing skill 
        development for specific work roles.
            (8) Opportunities to leverage supplementary personnel 
        models that might be adapted from other domains, such as cyber 
        civilian reserves or cyber auxiliary forces.
            (9) Integration of existing academic centers of excellence 
        or other university partnerships to help improve workforce 
        development, talent acquisition, and skills development.
            (10) A review of Framework work roles for artificial 
        intelligence, data science, and data engineering to assess 
        alignment with corresponding work roles in industry and 
        recommendations for modifications to enable more effective 
        recruiting of industry talent.
            (11) Resource requirements and implementation timeline for 
        the strategy developed under subsection (a)(1), including 
        budget estimates and key milestones.
    (c) External Views.--In developing the strategy required under 
subsection (a)(1), the Secretary may solicit or coordinate views from 
external organizations with relevant expertise in human resources 
planning or human capital strategy, higher education or training, or 
cyber professional industry associations.
    (d) Form.--The report submitted pursuant to subsection (a)(2) shall 
be submitted in unclassified form, but may include a classified annex.
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