Andrew Garbarino

Andrew served as a NY state assemblyman before being elected to Congress. Much of his time in office thus far has been committed to the issue of cybersecurity. He serves as the ranking member on the House Homeland Security Committee, passing bills that help beef up national, state, and local cybersecurity efforts!

Andrew was one of the 13 Republicans to vote for the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill. The main reason is New York is supposed to get $26+ billion in direct infrastructure benefits. Um, hello, no brainer, but Andrew received death threats for it. The man who threatened Andrew’s life pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and will be taking anger management training. Is that a worthy punishment or just a slap on the wrist for literally threatening to kill an elected official?

Andrew had his eyes on cybersecurity this year. Andrew is the Ranking Member on the House Homeland Security Committee which earlier this year, approved the DHS Industrial Control Systems Capability Enhancement Act of 2021. Andrew joined a bipartisan group of lawmakers to introduce a bill that would create a grant program for state and local governments to beef up their cybersecurity. Andrew also introduced the Small Business Cybersecurity Training Act, which would help Small Business Development Centers become better trained to assist small businesses with cybersecurity and strategy needs.

Thankfully, the annual National Defense Authorization Act for 2022 passed the House last week without much fanfare (you might recall that was not the case last year). Andrew was pleased to report that two of his amendments were included in the bill and WE were pleased to see that they were both cybersecurity related. One will create a stronger cybersecurity partnership between the U.S. and Israel. The other ensures our response plans to national cyber attacks are updated every two years. Given the speed of technology, it still feels like a snail’s pace, but we’ll take it!

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve—which many successfully lobbied President Biden to tap in the interest of curbing the soaring gas prices—is something of a last resort that many opposed, including Andrew. He led a letter to the President making the case that he should NOT tap this critical safety net but instead, reinvigorate domestic oil and gas production. The letter goes on to make the case that if we truly want lower prices at the pumps, then we must curtail our foreign energy reliance and return production to the homeland, most notably in the form of the Keystone XL pipeline. Many of Andrew’s fellow Republicans have been saying this for some time though it remains highly unlikely a Democratic administration will restart that endeavor. As for the letter, the President went ahead and tapped the SPR. We’ll see if our gas bills go down.