Senate Cybersecurity Bill Due This Week, Hearing Next Week, Says Lieberman
Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., is “optimistic” that the latest cybersecurity bill will be introduced as early as Thursday, he told us Tuesday before the Senate policy lunches. “We're moving. We will probably file it by the end of the week,” he said. Then “we are going to hold a hearing on the new bill just to give it a public airing next week.”
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Lieberman said a vote on the pending bill will likely come after the chamber returns from its Feb. 17-27 recess: “Hopefully we will be ready for the leader to move forward sometime in March. It is an urgent problem that in my opinion requires an urgent statutory response.”
Members from at least five Senate committees have been negotiating the terms of comprehensive cybersecurity legislation since Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., introduced his placeholder bill, S-21, over a year ago. Staffers said the bill aims to incorporate the strongest provisions of the Obama administration’s legislative proposal and elements of several pending cybersecurity bills into a single piece of legislation.
The language of the Senate cybersecurity bill is “pretty close” to the text of the White House cybersecurity recommendations, Lieberman said Tuesday. “There are some differences … but we have been in touch with the White House. I'm optimistic that they'll be supportive.”
Lieberman said cosponsors on the bill will include Homeland Security Committee Ranking Member Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va. Lieberman hopes Reid will hold a vote on the bill in “the next work period,” he said. There won’t be another markup before the floor vote, Lieberman said.
Private sector technology groups are working closely with the committee to develop a bill that “is very workable,” said Tom Gann, McAfee vice president-government relations, in an interview Monday. “We want to make sure that this bill or any other bill does not destroy the innovation that has been the life blood of this community,” he said. In particular, Gann said the private sector is urging the committee to adopt positive incentives like liability reform, tax credits and information sharing regimes to encourage greater cybersecurity.
Internet Security Alliance President Larry Clinton said the bill represents “a historic opportunity” to bring a comprehensive solution to a difficult problem. “There seems to be a broad consensus on a number of important items like reforming the Federal Information Security Management Act, enhancing criminal penalties, clarifying government roles and responsibilities and information sharing,” Clinton told us. “Policymakers on the Hill are becoming more sophisticated and knowledgeable” about cybersecurity, he said: “There is a growing realization that we need a more sophisticated solution.”