Good news, bad news for state and local cyber grant funding, says NASCIO director

There’s good news and bad news for proponents of the State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program, the $1 billion tranche of funding designed to shore up digital defenses in local governments across the country, a state technology association director said Tuesday.

The good news, said Doug Robinson, executive director of the National Association of State Chief Information Officers, is that it appears the SLCGP will not see its final year of funding clawed back — “the states may get their final portion,” Robinson said. The bad news, he said, is that the program appears unlikely to see reauthorization under the current presidential administration, which continues to eliminate funding across a broad array of programs, including the Department of Homeland Security and its cybersecurity division.

“That’s important to our local government folks, because 80% of those dollars are passed down to local governments for cybersecurity,” Robinson said during a webinar hosted Tuesday by the nonprofit Public Technology Institute.

Last April, NASCIO representatives testified before a House cybersecurity subcommittee urging the program’s reauthorization. Alan Fuller, Utah’s CIO, told lawmakers that “almost every state who has implemented funding from this program has seen some examples of tangible success in improving their cybersecurity posture.”

Numerous state IT leaders have told StateScoop they’re disappointed by the prospect of the program’s funding not being renewed, or even clawed back. And with just $1 billion spread across 50 states, dispersed over four years, it was seldom considered an adequate solution to the recurring issue of defending poorly funded schools, law enforcement agencies, local governments and utilities against sophisticated nation-state attackers. Many had hoped to see the program expanded to meet the size of the challenge.

“The word of the year so far for 2025 is ‘uncertainty,’ for state and local IT,” Robinson said. “A lot of the federal funding has either already been cut or is at risk for some of these programs, and a lot of these programs, particularly in areas like cybersecurity and health and human services, they are in the devolution stage, pushing back down to the states.”

Robinson, whose association represents the top technology officials in the state governments, also shared preliminary data for an annual membership survey that covers a swath of other IT issues, including web accessibility and AI. States, and larger local governments, are required by next April to meet certain accessibility standards, such as making their PDFs readable by assistive devices like screen readers.

The association’s latest survey data shows that some states might not make the deadline. About half of those who responded said their plan is “in progress” to meet the latest web standards, while only 2% have fully implemented their plans. About one-third are still developing their plans, 2% have no plan, 6% have a plan but haven’t implemented it, while 4% were “unsure” of the project’s status in their state.

NASCIO also collected data on what its membership is doing with generative artificial intelligence, perhaps the fastest evolving technology in state government. Robinson pointed to data from the National Council of State Legislatures showing that hundreds of bills are being introduced, with those seeking to regulate the private sector being the most common, followed by those seeking to regulate government use, health and education. He also cited states’ recent victory in removing a proposed moratorium on state AI law enforcement from the federal budget reconciliation bill.

Inside most states, chief information officers are keen to see how the latest large language models can save agencies time and expense. Early survey data Robinson shared shows that generative AI is being used or considered, most commonly, for meeting transcription, cybersecurity operations, document generation and management, and software code generation. 

And while 90% of state IT officials surveyed said their state is running at least one generative AI pilot project, and nearly half said they’re operating an AI “sandbox,” where technologies can be tested, only 23% said they have dedicated funding for AI. When asked about the focus of their AI initiatives, ethical and safety considerations ranked at the top for state officials.

“It’s relatively slow-go, with some vanguards who are out there already in production,” Robinson said. “But for the most part, the states are taking a relatively cautious approach to this because of some of the unknowns, but they also know there’s a tremendous opportunity out there.”