Posted on February 12, 2025
A $20 billion federal program to beef up cybersecurity at U.S. ports could be in jeopardy under President Donald Trump’s proposed federal funding freeze. Failure to modernize commercial ports could cripple U.S. maritime cybersecurity efforts at a time when China is ramping up strategic port investments across the Western Hemisphere, security analysts warned in congressional testimony Tuesday.
The Biden administration in 2024 launched a maritime infrastructure plan that pledged over $20 billion for U.S. port security over the next five years, in part through a series of grants. The White House also issued eleventh-hour cybersecurity guidance under former President Joe Biden that mandated incident response plans across the marine transportation system – an urgent move as experts said Beijing was tightening its grip on the ship-to-shore crane market and critical maritime software driving global trade (see: Biden Issues Final Maritime Cybersecurity Rules).
Under Trump, experts warned the House Homeland Security Committee that the previous administration’s pledged funding is already in jeopardy, which could stall vital port upgrades and cybersecurity defenses – while potentially exposing U.S. ports to Chinese cyber intrusions and supply chain disruptions that could upend global trade.
“It’s well known that many of our largest gateway ports receive tens of millions of attempted cyber intrusions per month at least,” American Association of Port Authorities CEO Cary Davis told lawmakers. Davis said federal funding has been “critical” in replacing aging infrastructure across U.S. ports with cutting-edge machine learning systems, artificial intelligence defensive measures and more.
“The types of projects that this critical grant program funds across the gamut are all really important for responding to the changing nature of a lot of threats that the ports are seeing,” he testified.
Trump and top adviser Elon Musk wasted no time calling for a federal funding freeze and vowing to eliminate all government diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, prompting agencies to issue abrupt stop-work orders for key contractors. Experts told Information Security Media Group the chaos – including sudden reversals – has sown confusion among federal cybersecurity vendors (see: Federal Cybersecurity Contractors Whiplashed By Uncertainty).
“The U.S. government cannot compete with Chinese-subsidized infrastructure investments on price or scale, but it has a number of other advantages,” said Matthew Kroenig, senior director of the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. He called for private sector investment incentives and improved maritime collaboration with key partners in the Indo-Pacific, including Australia, Japan and South Korea.
“The United States should encourage countries in the Western Hemisphere to adopt a de-risking approach to China,” he said, suggesting the U.S. and its partners pursue a “hard decoupling” in areas including telecommunications, advanced technology and military and intelligence cooperation.
China’s strategic positioning in the ports sector gives Beijing “the opportunity to exert influence over commercial shipping, gather intelligence on American and allied vessel traffic and potentially restrict the mobility of our Navy in a time of crisis,” Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., said in his opening remarks.
“The United States cannot and will not accept a scenario where a foreign adversary – one that openly seeks to undermine our global standing – controls infrastructure critical to U.S. homeland security, military readiness and economic stability,” Gimenez, who chairs the maritime security committee, said Tuesday. “The implications of these investments for U.S. homeland security cannot be ignored.”
Democrats on the House Transportation and Maritime Security Subcommittee slammed Musk’s push to cut federal funding and shrink the workforce. Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., compared cyberthreats from China to reports of Musk’s advisers accessing sensitive federal systems and data under the administration’s cost-cutting efforts.
“If my colleagues were as concerned as they profess to be about the PRC’s access to sensitive U.S. critical infrastructure and data, they would not be okay with handing their constituents’ information over to an unelected billionaire whose true intentions are unknown,” McIver said.
