Sponsors (3)
The bill concentrates federal incentives and targeted funding to grow the cybersecurity workforce and defenses—benefiting students, tech workers, employers, and distressed communities—while increasing federal costs and creating distributional and implementation risks that may favor better-resourced firms and credentialed pathways.
Students and early-career tech workers gain substantially more access to cybersecurity training, scholarships, certification support, and NSF ATE funding, expanding the domestic cybersecurity workforce pipeline.
Employers—especially government contractors—receive direct financial incentives (a tax credit covering 50% of qualifying cybersecurity education up to $5,000 per employee and a procurement evaluation boost), lowering training costs and improving contracting competitiveness for credit-claiming firms.
Tech workers and cybersecurity educators working in designated distressed areas can receive up to $25,000 in federal student loan cancellation (after qualifying payments), supporting hiring, retention, and local economic activity in hard-hit communities.
Taxpayers face higher federal costs from the combination of refundable/monetizable tax credits, up to $25,000 per borrower in loan cancellations, and recommended increases to NSF program funding, which could increase deficits or crowd out other spending.
Smaller firms and start-ups may not fully benefit from the tax credit (limited tax liability) and could be disadvantaged by procurement preferences that favor credit-claiming contractors, reducing competitiveness for firms that cannot afford or claim the credit.
Tying support to specific NCWF-listed credentials and emphasizing advanced technical skills risks excluding other valuable training pathways and leaving lower-skilled manufacturing workers behind if retraining is not broadly accessible.
Based on analysis of 12 sections of legislative text.
Provides a 50% employer tax credit (up to $5,000/employee) for cybersecurity training, loan cancellation up to $25k for qualifying cybersecurity workers, expands scholarships, and adds a 5-point procurement boost for firms that claimed the credit.
Introduced March 27, 2025 by Ted Lieu · Last progress March 27, 2025
Creates a federal package to grow the civilian cybersecurity workforce by subsidizing employer-led training, forgiving certain student loan balances for cybersecurity workers in distressed areas, expanding federal cybersecurity scholarship programs, and giving a small procurement scoring preference to firms that have used the new tax credit. Employers can claim a tax credit for employee cybersecurity education; borrowers who work in qualifying cybersecurity jobs in economically distressed areas and meet payment and service requirements can get up to $25,000 of federal loan cancellation; NSF scholarship programs are expanded and funding targets are expressed; and agencies must give a 5-point proposal evaluation boost to firms that have claimed the tax credit.