Congress mulls $500 million in grants to help states upgrade cybersecurity By Gopal Ratnam, CQ-Roll Call Published: May 11, 2021, 9:30am Share: WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of House lawmakers is drafting legislation that would provide as much as $500 million in annual grants to states and local governments to boost cybersecurity as financial fraud and ransomware attacks continue to cripple essential citizen services. Rep. Yvette D. Clarke, D-N.Y., chairwoman of the House Homeland Security Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection and Innovation Subcommittee, said at a hearing last week that she soon planned to introduce the bipartisan legislation to provide the grants. State and local governments remain the weakest link in the national cybersecurity chain, while private companies and federal agencies have significantly ramped up spending in the past decade on cybersecurity to protect their networks from attacks.