Sen. Mark Warner introduces bill to restore MS-ISAC funding, boosting federal cyber support to $50M annually

Source Domain: statescoop.com

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., introduced a bill Friday that would restore federal funding support to the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center and, in a letter sent to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, urged the agency to prioritize the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and its support of state, local and critical infrastructure cybersecurity efforts.

The bill, exclusively shared with StateScoop and titled the “Guaranteeing Universal Access to Cybersecurity Act,” aims to help state, local, territorial and tribal governments defend themselves and their critical infrastructure against cyberattacks, according to Warner’s office. It would authorize giving the Center for Internet Security, which runs the MS-ISAC, $50 million for fiscal 2027, and each fiscal year thereafter.

The $50 million annual authorization would go beyond just restoring funding lost last year — it would expand the federal government’s investment in MS-ISAC by five times. In March 2025, then-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem partially defunded several MS-ISAC activities, which impacted about $8.3 million of the program’s remaining 2025 budget, more than half of the $15.7 million that remained available at the time. By comparison, CIS had historically received roughly $10 million annually from CISA to support MS-ISAC operations.

Despite the pulled funding, the interoperability of MS-ISAC’s cyber threat intelligence collection and dissemination, as well as technical assistance services, between state and federal partners wasn’t formally discontinued until September when CISA declined to renew its agreement with CIS. At that time, the MS-ISAC provided free cybersecurity resources and monitoring to 18,000 state, local, territorial, tribal organizations and communities, as well as critical infrastructure operators including public hospitals, public utilities, K-12 schools and law enforcement.

The action was met with…

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