The Senate Transportation, Technology & Legislative Affairs committee approved HB1549, an agency bill aimed at strengthening the state's cybersecurity posture by centralizing oversight and requiring recurring assessments and a rapid-response capability.

Representative Scott Richardson (House District 13) told the committee the bill is meant to improve the state's overall security posture and to "establish a cyber response team, a team that is specifically focused on moving quickly to mitigate any gaps or risk or incidences that occur." Richardson said the measure also would require the agency to report its security posture to the technology committee on a regular basis.

Gary Vance, who identified himself as the state cybersecurity officer in the Office of State Technology, told the committee the state already has cybersecurity personnel in each executive department but lacks coordinated governance across the executive branch. "We will begin to work together as a virtual team... and we will bring forth these cyber frameworks and cyber strategies that give us a more mature outward facing model than what we have today," Vance said.

Committee members asked about scope: the bill focuses on the executive branch, agency staff said, though the office provides assistance to counties, K-12 and higher education. Lawmakers asked about closed briefings and assessments; Vance and Representative Richardson said some sensitive assessments would be provided to legislators in closed session to avoid disclosing defensive methodologies.

Representative Richardson moved the bill forward; the committee approved it by voice vote. The transcript records discussion of governance, incident response, and plans to pursue a state cyber task force that would include state, local and national guard participants, but it does not include implementation timelines or detailed resourcing.