The House is preparing to debate four cybersecurity bills this week, including controversial legislation intended to help private companies and the federal government share information about cyber attacks.
That measure, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing Protection Act (CISPA), H.R. 3523, is the first of the bills the House will take up, a process that will start with a committee collecting proposed amendments today. Large defense companies support the measure and have donated ample money to Congress in hopes of easing its passage, according to research by non-profit watchdog group MapLight. Yet civil-liberties groups oppose it, and President Barack Obama’s administration has suggested the bill does not call for enough federal oversight of private networks.
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is pushing for passage of CISPA and the trio of related cyber bills. His office notes the bills jibe with recommendations a House Republican Cybersecurity Task Force released last October.
The bills “address the central issue the federal government and industry have stated must be addressed now: updating existing cybersecurity laws to provide the legal authorities to allow for information-sharing and public-private partnerships,” Boehner’s office said in a statement. “Information-sharing is crucial to stopping the persistent and aggressive threat facing all aspects of our economy, our critical infrastructure, our communications, and our nation’s security.”
The House, though, this week will not take up the Promoting and Enhancing Cybersecurity and Information Sharing Effectiveness (PRECISE) Act, which the House Homeland Security Committee approved last week. The committee tweaked the bill during its markup session, paring back plans in an earlier iteration aimed at bolstering the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) oversight within the federal civilian government for cyber defenses (Defense Daily, April 19). The pre-markup version of the PRECISE Act was seen as being closer to what the White House and Senate Democrats want.
Meanwhile, consideration of the CISPA bill will start with the House Rules Committee, which set a deadline for submitting amendments of 4:30 p.m. today. The panel will weigh the legislation tomorrow, setting up floor debate as soon as Thursday.
The legislation would help private companies defend themselves from cyber attacks by allowing the government to share classified data with them. It also aims to encourage companies to share information about cyber attacks with each other and the government.
The three other bills Boehner said the House will consider are:
– The Federal Information Security Amendments (H.R. 4257) measure, which is intended to overhaul the rules for securing federal government networks;
– The Cybersecurity Enhancement Act (H.R. 2096), which is aimed at improving federal government cybersecurity research; and
– Advancing America’s Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) Act (H.R. 3834), which would reauthorize the federal government’s Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) program.