ABA joined with trade groups representing several industries in a letter to lawmakers urging them to increase funding for the National Institute of Standards and Technology in 2018. The groups noted concern over the Trump administration’s proposal to cut $237.2 million of NIST’s financing — a 25 percent overall decrease — and highlighted NIST’s valuable contributions to increasing cybersecurity in the private sector.
“Pound for pound and dollar for dollar, few government entities have done as much as NIST to help businesses strengthen their cybersecurity in collective ways,” the groups wrote. “Instead of cutting NIST’s resources, we believe that Congress should boost the agency’s funding given the critical tasks it undertakes with the private sector on cybersecurity, such as protecting the Internet of Things.”
