Senate GOP Blames Reid, White House for Cybersecurity Impasse
Partisan ire with the Senate cybersecurity impasse boiled over Tuesday as Republicans and Democrats bashed each other for failing to increase the nation’s cybersecurity posture. Republican sponsors of the SECURE IT Act (S-2151) blamed Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and the White House for the Senate’s failure to pass cybersecurity legislation before the August recess. Reid, and a spokeswoman for Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., continued to lay the blame on GOP intransigence.
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Reid and the administration “shut down debate, forced a vote they knew they would lose and blamed Republicans for the failure,” said GOP Sens. John McCain of Arizona; Kay Bailey Hutchison, Texas; Chuck Grassley, Iowa; Saxby Chambliss, Ga.; Jon Kyl, Ariz.; Lisa Murkowski, Alaska; Dan Coats, Ind.; Ron Johnson, Wis.; and Richard Burr, N.C., in a critical letter released Tuesday.
The SECURE IT sponsors said it is “bizarre” that some Democrats were accusing Republicans of “somehow shirking our responsibilities” on national security when the majority leader has so far this year refused to consider the FY 2013 National Defense Authorization Act. The letter urged the Senate to again take up debate on cybersecurity when it returns Sept. 10 and not let the issue “fall victim to partisan politics in an election year.” Rather than offering legislation in a “take it or leave it manner,” the Senate should consider a bill that “ensures our security, utilizes the most innovative aspects of the private sector and the government, and does not harm our economy,” the letter said.
Reid’s spokesman Adam Jentleson fired back and called the letter a distraction from the GOP’s opposition to the Cybersecurity Act (S-3414). Republicans turned the cybersecurity debate into a “Tea Party circus” when they offered non-germane amendments like a repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and restrictions on contraception coverage, Jentleson told us. “Republicans showed they are not serious about addressing our nation’s cyber security … and now, Republicans are trying to distract attention from the fact that their party voted to block legislation vital to our national security.” The White House declined to comment.
The Republican letter is incorrect on two counts, said Lieberman spokeswoman Leslie Phillips. “It is not true that McCain et al. were not allowed to offer amendments on the floor. The cosponsors of the Cybersecurity Act went hoarse asking Republicans to submit a list of germane and relevant amendments, which they never did and still haven’t done. All we got was repeal of ACA and a sunset of the bill [S-3414] while businesses continued to get total liability protection,” she told us. Second, “it is not true there was a agreement on how to move forward. McCain offered no details, wasn’t even close to an agreement on information sharing, and wasn’t speaking for his caucus."
A McCain spokesman separately said the Lieberman staffer was “just flat wrong.” It’s “a matter of fact that no amendments were ever allowed to be voted on in Committee or on the Senate floor. Further, SECURE IT cosponsors did in fact submit a list of relevant and germane amendments to the Lieberman-Collins team,” he told us via email. “There absolutely was, as the statement this morning makes clear, an understanding among Republicans and Democrats involved in the negotiations on how to move forward in good faith over the recess.”
Murkowski spokesman Robert Dillon said Reid is more focused on campaigning than actually getting something accomplished. “All you have to do is look at Senator Reid’s continued record of not allowing bills to go through the proper procedure, the regular order, or allow them to have an open amendment process on the floor,” Dillon said. “And that’s why we are one of the most do-nothing congresses in history, it’s because the Majority Leader will not allow an open process. What’s wrong with voting? Let’s hope we do.”
If Reid sincerely wants to pursue a way forward on cybersecurity, he should take up legislation that resembles the House-passed Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) (HR-3523), Dillon told us. “We believe there is consensus on strengthening a lot of the information sharing [provisions] so companies can give information to the government without worrying about it being leaked or violating their trade secrets or anything,” he said. “So let’s start there and let’s work from there. That is where there is large bipartisan support and a majority of the bicameral Congress” supports it.
Democrats “aren’t serious” about bipartisanship, said a spokesman for Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Calif. If the Democrats were, “they would have worked to incorporate key parts of SECURE IT into the Lieberman bill,” he said. “That never happened.” Bono Mack sponsored the House companion to the SECURE IT Act (HR-4263) and a separate data security bill, the SAFE Data Act (HR-2577). Her spokesman said that despite the partisan bickering, Bono Mack believes compromise is “still possible and critically needed to prevent a disaster from occurring in the not-too-distant future.”