A bipartisan bill introduced in the Senate would direct the Department of Homeland Security to provide resources and assistance to local governments that adopt the more secure .gov web domain for websites and email addresses.
The bill was introduced on Wednesday by Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Gary Peters (D-Mich.), ranking member on the committee, James Langford (R-Okla.), and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.).
“The passage of this bill will ensure state, local, tribal, and territorial governments have greater access to a trusted domain and Department of Homeland Security resources, ultimately increasing the security of their websites in today’s ever-changing cyber threat landscape,” Johnson said in a statement. “It will also help Americans and businesses know which government websites are legitimate and better prevent them from distributing sensitive information.”
The DOTGOV Online Trust in Government Act of 2019 directs the DHS Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to help local government switch to the .gov domain. It requires CISA to develop an outreach strategy and the resources for these governments so that they can take advantage of the more secure domain and would allow local governments to expense the costs under the DHS Homeland Security Grant Program.