House Cybersecurity Leaders Encouraged by Revised Senate Bill
Three leading House cybersecurity advocates said Wednesday in separate interviews at the Capitol they were encouraged by the Senate’s intention to bring a cybersecurity bill to the floor. Members said they hope the Senate will be able to reach a compromise on the revised Senate Cybersecurity Act (S-3414) in a way that resembles the House-passed Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) (HR-3523). Sponsors of S-3414 previously said Majority Leader Harry Reid, R-Nev., plans to bring the bill to the floor for consideration before lawmakers depart Aug. 3 (CD July 25 p12).
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House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., told us he’s encouraged that the Senate is finally moving on cybersecurity. “There has been a lack of movement for a long time,” said Rogers, a co-sponsor of CISPA. “I hope they get a bill that is closer to the House bill so in conference it is easier to negotiate. At the end of the day if we have the ability to have a conference I think that is very good for our national security,” he said. “Negotiations are ongoing, I think [S-3414] will take a whole bunch of different forms between now and when it gets to the Senate [floor]. … Hopefully they can understand that a very regulatory, prescriptive, shall-do kind of bill isn’t going to pass the House and I think they are coming to that conclusion.”
House Cybersecurity Subcommittee Chairman Dan Lungren, R-Calif., told us he too is encouraged by the Senate’s movement on the issue but said there’s still much to do. “I understand that some in the industry are still concerned about whether it is written in such a way that it leads to heavy-handed regulation,” he said. “I think that is the nut to crack. How do you get it so that it works in the way that they envision for it? So I'm still waiting to see what the Senate does.”
"Protecting our critical infrastructure is a fundamental issue and I don’t think we ought to give up,” Lungren told us. House leadership decided not to consider Lungren’s Promoting and Enhancing Cybersecurity and Information Sharing Effectiveness (PrECISE) Act (HR-3624) during the May “cyberweek” votes, despite the legislation undergoing major revisions intended to make the bill more palatable to critics in industry (CD April 19 p8). “I think we ought to keep working until we achieve something that is actually going to work and not … stifle the initiative of the private sector. How we bridge that gap, obviously I wasn’t able to do it at this point in time but I'm not going to give up; I'm hopeful.”
Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I. said he thought the Senate cybersecurity bill is moving in the right direction: “Obviously having something right now is better than the status quo, which is nothing.” Langevin is the co-founder of the Congressional Cybersecurity Caucus and the author of the Executive Cyberspace Coordination Act (HR-1136). Langevin said he still supports cybersecurity mandates for owners and operators of critical infrastructure: “In the categories of good, better and best I believe that mandatory minimum standards are best and that is what I would prefer to see.”
The Internet Security Alliance (ISA) separately praised some of the modifications in the Senate bill, but urged Reid to delay a floor vote until the committees of jurisdiction have adequate time to consider the changes. “Even well-intentioned initiatives, without careful consideration and discussion with the entities that will be affected by the proposals, can easily make our security situation worse,” said ISA President Larry Clinton Wednesday in a letter sent to Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. Instead of rushing S-3414 to a vote, Reid should bring forward the SECURE IT Act, a less-regulatory bill by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., which has “widespread support from both parties and in the private sector,” the letter said.