Senate NDAA proposes CMMC grant program
Senate NDAA proposes CMMC grant program
https://federalnewsnetwork.com/cybersecurity/2026/06/senate-ndaa-proposes-cmmc-grant-program/
Publish Date: 2026-06-17 18:23:00
Source Domain: federalnewsnetwork.com
The Senate Armed Services Committee has advanced legislation that would set up a grant program for small businesses and nontraditional contractors to cover the costs of Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) compliance.
The CMMC grant program is included in the full text of the committee’s fiscal 2027 defense authorization bill, released Tuesday. The committee released the text Tuesday after approving the bill in a June 10 closed-door mark up.
If passed into law, the provision would require the Defense Department to establish the CMMC grant program by July 1, 2027.
DoD is ramping up CMMC “Level Two” requirements starting this November. Those requirements are expected to apply to tens of thousands of companies. They generally require contractors that are expected to handle sensitive controlled unclassified information (CUI) to have their data security practices evaluated by a CMMC Third-party Assessment Organization (C3PAO).
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The grant program in the Senate defense bill would be available to small businesses and new entrants to offset the costs of a C3PAO assessment.
The maximum amount per grant would be $100,000. The bill would cap the total funding allotted for the CMMC grant program at $50 million. It would also require the program to prioritize organizations that have not previously held a DoD contract or subcontract.
The bill would also require that the grant only be used to offset direct costs associated with a CMMC Level Two third-party assessment.
The Senate bill’s language seeks to address persistent concerns around whether CMMC compliance could force small businesses to leave the defense industrial base or dissuade new companies from seeking defense contracts.
In the final CMMC program rule issued in 2024, DoD estimated that the Level Two certification costs for a small business would be a little more than $101,000.
Those cost estimates don’t include the cost…
