Sen. Mark Warner will introduce new legislation to fund the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC), which is part of the nonprofit Center for Internet Security and provides free cybersecurity resources and monitoring for some 19,000 state, local, territorial, tribal organizations (SLTT) and communities.
Funding for MS-ISAC has traditionally come from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). However, the funding was not part of Public Law 119-21 — known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act — signed into law last year by President Donald Trump. Prior to being cut, the MS-ISAC cybersecurity funding accounted for $27 million of DHS’ $100 billion budget, which has now grown to $518.35 billion.
Warner’s legislation would allocate $50 million in fiscal year 2027 and each year after, for MS-ISAC funding.
“The entirety of America’s critical infrastructure are in grave danger from our adversaries and criminals using the latest artificial intelligence (AI) enabled tools to find vulnerabilities and exploit them for financial gain, to create chaos, or both,” Warner wrote Thursday in a letter to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, urging the DHS leader to restore the funding.
The legislation, known as the Guaranteeing Universal Access to Cybersecurity Act, would have the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to enter into an agreement with the Center for Internet Security to begin providing free cybersecurity services, threat detection and technical assistance to public-sector organizations.
More specifically, it would compel identification of the SLTT entities that were MS-ISAC members before its move to a paid model — and those that never joined — and restore, retain or foster their membership.
“Critical infrastructure owners, operators, law enforcement, and SLTT leaders are worried,” Warner said in a statement. “They need CISA back to full strength, and soon.”
