SIA outlines impact of Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act on security

SILVER SPRING, Md.—The Security Industry Association (SIA) outlined the impact of the new Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which President Biden signed and passed into law on Nov. 15. Jake Parker, SIA’s Senior Director of Government Relations, pointed out that this infrastructure bill is the most significant U.S. investment in infrastructure in decades and includes $550 billion in funding far above baseline for many existing highway, transit, rail and other programs.

“SIA commends the president and Congress on the passage and signing of this important bipartisan legislation, which will help meet the urgent need for modernizing our nation’s infrastructure and provide a much-needed boost to our nation’s economy,” Parker said. “Solutions across a wide range of sectors within the security industry will play an essential role in infrastructure expansion and modernization, providing increased safety and security throughout the nation.”

Parker noted that the SIA government relations team has closely followed the development of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs and will continue to educate SIA members on the provisions that will most impact the industry includes the following objectives:

Guidance on grant programs: The infrastructure bill includes grant funding for public transit, airport and smart cities grants and school facility improvements. Because these grants can also be used for security improvements, SIA will keep a close eye on how the grants included in this bill are implemented and provide guidance on these programs to our members. SIA has also created a new Grants Training Course to help SIA members navigate and leverage federal grants for security projects – including commercial and non-federal projects – which you can access as a web-based training here.

Resources related to cyber-physical security programs and funding: The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act include several measures related to securing the electric grid, including a new U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) public-private partnerships program to mitigate electric utilities’ security risks, $250 million for a new DOE program on grid security research and demonstration, a $50 million energy sector cyber-resilience program and a $1 billion state and local cybersecurity grant program. SIA will work closely with our Cybersecurity Advisory Board and Utilities Advisory Board to understand these policies and provide further information to our members.

Guidance on Buy America and Buy American rules: The new infrastructure measure significantly expands domestic preference rules for federally funded infrastructure projects and includes additional policies impacting direct procurement by federal agencies. SIA will monitor the implementation of these new requirements, provide feedback to agencies as needed and provide related resources for security industry manufacturers and integrators.

For more information on how the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act will impact the security industry, see SIA’s full summary here.