Transformative Federal Cyber Grants Face an Uncertain Future

Transformative Federal Cyber Grants Face an Uncertain Future

https://www.governing.com/magazine/transformative-federal-cyber-grants-face-an-uncertain-future

Publish Date: 2026-05-29 12:15:00

Source Domain: www.governing.com

In the government offices of a midsized Connecticut town, a cursor was moving across the screen — only no one was touching the mouse, and no one was sitting at the machine. It was the start of what could’ve become a major cybersecurity event, says state CIO Mark Raymond. But town personnel had been trained to recognize the early signs of a hack. They had an incident response plan at the ready and shut down the hack “in a matter of moments.”

It was “incredibly helpful in not having this escalate into a big sort of event,” Raymond says.

A few years ago, the town might not have had that plan. When the state evaluated some local governments’ cybersecurity in 2020, it found “people were doing the minimum, or, in some cases, not the minimum,” Raymond recalls.

Some local governments had virus protection and data backups, and some large towns were doing well on cyber. But most local governments were struggling. Plenty of towns were using equipment too old to be patched, and failed to conduct phishing tests — which train employees to be alert to phishing attacks — or to use multifactor authentication. Almost none had detailed plans in place for responding to cyber attacks.

Then the State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program (SLCGP) launched. Passed as part of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, it was designed to provide $1 billion from 2022-2025 for state and local cybersecurity needs. The bulk of the funds were funneled from states to local governments through direct subgrants, shared services or other methods, and provided much-needed resources to help cities, towns and counties shore up their defenses.

“[The grant] ensured that the majority of the funds went to those who needed it most,” Raymond says, with 80 percent designated for local governments and 25 percent for rural communities.

States who received these grants still have up to three years to spend their…

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