USDA nominee for rural development eyes cyber, IT assists

The Department of Agriculture will not be shy about asking Congress for help on cybersecurity and IT, the agency’s undersecretary for rural development nominee told senators Wednesday.

Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee Chairman John Boozman teed up a cyber-focused line of questioning to Glen Smith by noting reports of China targeting utilities, including water systems. The Arkansas Republican asked Smith if he’d pledge to keep the committee in the loop on “what new policy tools may be needed” as part of USDA’s mission to protect those rural water systems and other critical infrastructure.

Smith co-signed Boozman’s take on the importance of cybersecurity to core infrastructure programs overseen by USDA’s Rural Development division, saying threat reports like the ones Boozman mentioned “scares the bejeebus out of” him. 

“I think any programs that Rural Development is involved in should make sure we have adequate cybersecurity measures, because a lot of this can be done by bad characters simply from cybersecurity,” Smith said. “They’re not going to show up at a site and plant a bomb at a substation. They’re going to do it on their computer.”

Smith noted that rural areas especially “may not have the security measures” necessary to protect the distribution grid. Other areas Rural Development may need a cybersecurity refresh on include programs involving new loans for guarantees and grants, he added.

Boozman then asked Smith — the former chairman and CEO of the Farm Credit Administration — how important he thought it would be to improve USDA Rural Development’s IT program, and if he viewed such technology as crucial to bettering customer experience. 

Smith said he hadn’t “delved into” those issues yet, but he cited his experience at FCA during the COVID-19 pandemic as a valuable lesson for how he’d approach IT at USDA.

“Cybersecurity is at the top of the issue, and a key to that is a very on-top-of-it IT program,” Smith said. “We found with our employees, particularly during COVID, we really had to tap into those IT resources in order to continue with our mission.”

At Rural Development, Smith said he would engage in a fact-finding mission across the agency’s hundreds of field offices to make sure they have “the right equipment” to communicate with each other and with USDA officials in Washington, D.C.

“So it’s something I will look into, and something that I think is a great deal of importance,” he said. “And if there’s improvement needed, you can believe that we’ll try to execute those changes.”

Beyond cybersecurity and IT, Smith devoted part of his opening statement and answered several questions Wednesday about rural broadband. He committed to Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, that he’d review duplicative connectivity programs, and told Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., that he’d ensure rural providers “have the same priority as urban broadband.”

“It is the key for rural America to stay connected with the rest of the country, with the world. We have had success with ReConnect,” Smith said, referring to USDA’s broadband loan and grant program. “The main thing we are going to look at is, do we have the resources for ReConnect? And that’s entirely up to you in Congress, whether those resources are allocated, but I can tell you that in Rural Development, we have that footprint … in rural America that I think we can deliver.”