IC Oversight & Policy — 2026-06-27

House Homeland Security Chairman Ogles Proposes NDAA Amendment to Create US Cyber Force Housed at DHS

BLUFAbsent a committee champion, the Ogles amendment to house a Cyber Force at DHS rather than DOD is unlikely to survive NDAA conference by year's end, though it reframes the jurisdictional debate around civilian network defense.

Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN), chairman of the House Homeland Security cyber subcommittee, filed a fiscal 2027 NDAA amendment to create a US Cyber Force within DHS during peacetime, transferring to Air Force authority upon a declaration of war or presidential order 1. Inside Cybersecurity reports the proposal models the force on the Coast Guard's dual-department structure, departing from prior legislation that placed a Cyber Force within DOD 1. Core functions include continuous monitoring of federal civilian networks, hunt and incident response support to federal and state governments, and cyber law enforcement, with a mandated operational co-location with CISA 1. The amendment requests $25 million in fiscal 2027 for a DHS transition plan, with a joint DOD-DHS funding proposal for fiscal years 2028-2033 due 180 days after submission 1.

Analysis
The Ogles amendment is unlikely to be incorporated into the final FY2027 NDAA by year's end. Moderate confidence reflects the proposal's posture as a floor measure without committee sponsorship and the institutional record of resistance to civilian-department Cyber Force structures. The DHS-housing model conflicts directly with Pentagon equities accumulated across years of DOD-centered deliberations, and no committee champion has been identified to carry the provision through markup and into conference. Single-source coverage from Inside Cybersecurity, with no primary source confirmed, further qualifies analytical weight. The DHS structure may function as a legislative marker designed to pressure DOD into accelerating its own Cyber Force timeline rather than as a serious bid for adoption; absent that pressure converting to movement, DOD-centered proposals remain the operative planning baseline.

1 sources

Rep. Ogles proposes NDAA amendment to establish Cyber Force at DHS - Inside Cybersecurity