Promise for a Cybersecurity Compromise Fading
A compromise among Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Cybersecurity Act (S-3414) failed to materialize Tuesday as the clock ticked down toward the end of the Senate’s work period. Supporters of S-3414 slammed the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for leading the opposition against the bill despite major changes made to appease the business lobby. Tuesday, the Chamber remained unmovable and urged senators to strike the text of S-3414 and replace it with an alternative cybersecurity bill, the SECURE IT Act (S-2151).
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There’s “not a lot hope” coming from the Republican side for reaching a compromise on the bill, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told reporters. The Chamber is the problem, said Reid, because of it’s “unrelenting” opposition” to the bill. “Republicans are going to determine what they are going to do. Are they going to kill this bill? [If so, it] would be a really sad day for America.” Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said the biggest hurdle to overcome is the Chamber’s opposition to the bill. It would be “really bad” if the Senate fails to reach a compromise on the bill, he told reporters. “There is so much intensity involved in the meetings now … to take away August and come back … it takes some of the intensity away, which I think is ridiculous because it’s just an atom bomb waiting to go off."
The Chamber urged senators to “move the needle” on cybersecurity by rejecting S-3414 and approving an amendment that would implement the SECURE IT Act, in a “key vote” alert sent to lawmakers. S-3414 could actually impede U.S. cybersecurity by “shifting businesses’ resources away from implementing robust and effective security measures and toward meeting government mandates,” the notice said. “There are no ‘quick-fix’ amendments that can achieve what should be the central goal of S-3414: legislation that enhances U.S. cybersecurity by helping the business community thwart cyber threats,” the notice said.
Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., said the “big obstacle” to the bill is coming from the Chamber, but was optimistic that the Senate will vote on the bill this week. “The two sides here are coming a lot closer together,” he told reporters. Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., is “particularly playing an important role in trying to bridge the gaps which are much smaller than they were when we started this,” Lieberman said. “I think we have a real good shot at getting to votes this week and I hope passing the bill.”
Kyl has been working with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., who would not say where exactly the two sides were positioned Tuesday but outlined three potential scenarios. One of three things will happen, he told us: “Either at the last minute compromise is found, or sufficient Republicans defect from the party position to defend our nation’s security that we … get over 60 [votes], or we fail and the nation goes unprotected and virtually every national security analysis shows that is our top national security hazard.”
The only Republican sponsor of S-3414, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, told reporters that it’s “too early to say what a compromise might look like” and that her party is still in discussions over the fate of the bill. “The differences are narrowing but there is no doubt that there are some pretty significant disagreements,” she said. “Something like a hundred amendments” have been filed already, Collins said. “But a quarter of those amendments are from Sen. McCain. Many of them are duplicative. If need be we ought to work through those amendments. That is an alternative track.” At our deadline the Library of Congress’s legislation tracker listed 90 amendments to the bill, 33 of which were proposed by McCain. “Obviously it would be better if we could come up with a compromise,” Collins said. “But if we can’t I see no reason why we shouldn’t just proceed to work through the amendments through normal order.”
McCain has led the Republican opposition to S-3414 along with other sponsors of the SECURE IT Act. McCain said last week that the bill in its current form would harm the U.S. economy, fail to secure its networks and expand the size and reach of the federal government. The SECURE IT Act, which is being added as an amendment to S-3414, is also sponsored by GOP Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Dan Coats of Indiana, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Richard Burr of North Carolina.
The major issues weighing down the bill are related to liability protections for businesses, and information sharing provisions that protect trade secrets, said Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md. “We are very close, we all want to protect America,” she told reporters. “The question is one party wants to protect businesses from what they perceive is a perceived threat to private owners’ security. We have assured them that they are not,” she said. “I believe in an amendment process … but first we need to agree on the core elements of the bill and rest would be fine tuning it."
Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, called the negotiations a “delicate balancing act,” in an interview. “I hope there is an open amendment process so we can allow the senators to weigh in on different issues because it is critically important and there aren’t simple solutions,” she said. Questions still remain as to how the bill will affect the private sector and how government will be involved and help mitigate the cyberthreats to the country, she said. “I think it is a question of how we proceed and not rush this legislation. … It is a crucial issue and there needs to be some work on the underlying legislation.”