{"id":177660,"date":"2026-01-13T15:09:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T20:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/13\/wisconsin-co-op-leader-urges-congress-to-renew-crucial-cybersecurity-program\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T15:15:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T20:15:08","slug":"wisconsin-co-op-leader-urges-congress-to-renew-crucial-cybersecurity-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/13\/wisconsin-co-op-leader-urges-congress-to-renew-crucial-cybersecurity-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Wisconsin Co-op Leader Urges Congress to Renew Crucial Cybersecurity Program"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wisconsin Co-op Leader Urges Congress to Renew Crucial Cybersecurity Program<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.electric.coop\/wisconsin-co-op-leader-urges-congress-to-renew-crucial-cybersecurity-program<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-01-13 15:09:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.electric.coop<\/a><\/p>\n

Author: <\/a><\/p>\n

Using an unordered list, summarize the following article with between 4 and 8 key points. <\/p>\n

Nate Melby, vice president and chief information officer at\u00a0Dairyland Power Cooperative,\u00a0testifies about cyberthreats to the electric grid at\u00a0the\u00a0House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy.\u00a0(Photo By:\u00a0Denny Gainer\/NRECA)<\/p>\n

Congress should\u00a0act quickly to\u00a0renew\u00a0a crucial cybersecurity program\u00a0that\u00a0helps\u00a0electric cooperatives protect\u00a0the grid from\u00a0rapidly changing\u00a0cyberthreats,\u00a0a Wisconsin co-op leader\u00a0urged\u00a0a House panel Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSecuring the grid is essential to national security, but the threat landscape is evolving faster than ever,\u201d Nate Melby, vice president and chief information officer at\u00a0Dairyland Power Cooperative, told the\u00a0House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile cooperatives are committed to this fight, we cannot confront sophisticated nation-state actors alone.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Melby\u00a0asked for the subcommittee\u2019s help\u00a0to reauthorize the\u00a0Department of\u00a0Energy\u2019s\u00a0$250 million\u00a0Rural and Municipal Utility Cybersecurity Program, which prioritizes funding for co-ops with the greatest need for support and those that serve military installations\u00a0and other key facilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cybercriminals and some foreign nations, including China, \u201care among the most active and persistent threats\u201d to the electric grid,\u00a0he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cRMUC bridges the rural resource gap, ensuring that the security posture in rural America is as robust and formidable as anywhere else in the nation,\u201d\u00a0Melby\u00a0said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is accomplished by helping electric cooperatives make critical investments in three key areas: the people, processes\u00a0and technologies necessary to secure the grid.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last fall, he said, DOE announced $80 million in RMUC awards that would directly support more than 400\u00a0cooperatives\u2019\u00a0cybersecurity programs, including those of generation and transmission co-ops like Dairyland\u00a0as well as\u00a0distribution co-ops.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis funding includes $3.5 million for Dairyland Power Cooperative, which will allow us to work with 20 of our distribution co-ops to invest in technologies that will boost cyber defenses across our shared systems.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Unfortunately,\u00a0he said,\u00a0La Crosse-based\u00a0Dairyland\u00a0and\u00a0other co-op\u00a0awardees\u00a0are still waiting for those funds, which\u00a0would\u00a0empower\u00a0them to hire cyber professionals, strengthen information-sharing and use more advanced technologies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Melby said moving these resources from the pipeline to the field will \u201cexpand and expedite the collaborative work to improve cyber defenses that is already being done between co-ops, statewide associations\u00a0and NRECA.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

There is an estimated $160 million left in the overall RMUC program,\u00a0which\u00a0will\u00a0lose its\u00a0authorization\u00a0from Congress in less than a year, Melby said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the importance of this program to electric cooperatives and our nation\u2019s security, NRECA is strongly urging Congress to reauthorize this program and update the legislation to improve program access for co-ops with limited resources.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He said not-for-profit co-ops\u00a0\u201coperate on thin margins in difficult terrain,\u201d making it important to pair effective policy with resources\u00a0rather than with burdensome bureaucracy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery dollar we spend comes directly from our members\u2019 pockets, so we need solutions that empower us to protect our communities without adding financial strain,\u201d Melby said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe strongly urge the\u00a0committee to advance the RMUC reauthorization to ensure we can keep the lights on for 42 million Americans.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Erin Kelly is a staff writer for NRECA.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wisconsin Co-op Leader Urges Congress to Renew Crucial Cybersecurity Program https:\/\/www.electric.coop\/wisconsin-co-op-leader-urges-congress-to-renew-crucial-cybersecurity-program Publish Date: 2026-01-13 15:09:00…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":177661,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.electric.coop\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/hearing-melby-011326.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[24],"class_list":["post-177660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cybersecurity","tag-cybersecurity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177660"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177660"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":177662,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177660\/revisions\/177662"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}