Members of the House Armed Services Committee approved an amendment to the upcoming fiscal year's defense authorization bill proposed by Reps. Morgan Luttrell, R-Texas, and Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa., that would mandate an independent evaluation on the establishment of a dedicated Cyber Force, according to The Record, a news site by cybersecurity firm Recorded Future.
The amendment was ultimately included in the House's version of the fiscal 2025 National Defense Authorization Act, which now heads to the full House, even after the eventual withdrawal of support from the panel's Democratic members due to the opposition of ranking member Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., to a new service under the Defense Department.
Such a development comes after Luttrell emphasized the importance of an independent Cyber Force in an op-ed in Defense News.
"[The U.S. Cyber Command] has been an incredibly well-led organization that has made the best of the hand it's dealt. But the limitations of the current structure — with cyber officers and enlisted personnel spread across the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps — are more apparent and the implications are more dangerous than ever before," Luttrell wrote.
