A committee of lawmakers charged with overseeing the cyber side of homeland defense debuted Wednesday with a look at the research projects and priorities at the Department of Homeland Security. Among the questions under consideration is whether critical cyber-infrastructure owned by the private sector requires subsidies for security.

Rep. Robert Andrews, D-N.J., asked the question of Charles McQueary, DHS undersecretary of the Science and Technology Directorate, who testified Wednesday. Charging that cyber-defenses in the private sector are "not as high as they could be," Andrews asked whether the government should subsidize the hardening of infrastructure to the extent that the market fails to.

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