Cyber security legislation is still important but the number one legislative priority this year for the Obama administration is immigration reform, the Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said yesterday.
Despite battling hard last year for comprehensive cyber security legislation that was never approved by Congress, Napolitano said while it remains a “very high priority…I would say frankly that our number one priority in terms of legislation is immigration. It is high time for immigration reform.”
In the wake of Congress’ failure last year to approve a comprehensive cyber security bill, President Barack Obama last month issued an Executive Order that directs the federal government to share unclassified and classified cyber threat information with core critical infrastructures that voluntarily request the data (Defense Daily, Feb. 13). The directive can’t address the issue of the private sector voluntarily sharing data about threats to its networks with the federal government, something that will require legislation, which is what the administration would like to see.
Speaking at an event sponsored by the political news publication Politico, Tom Ridge, the nation’s first Homeland Security Secretary, said there are some things that he finds “problematic” with the Executive Order on cyber security. One is that there is “a notion” that the private sector hasn’t invested in cyber security when it has put billions of dollars into cyber defenses.
He also said that the idea that an Executive Order needs to direct that unclassified cyber threat information can be shared makes him “wonder where have we been for the last 10 years.” Ridge added that “it’s almost unspeakable that we had to come to this point” that 20 years after the Internet began being used widely that the president has to direct that information be shared with the private sector.
Napolitano said that she believes there is still a lot of bipartisan interest in Congress to try and “fill in the gaps” within the Executive Order. She declined to put odds on whether a cyber bill could pass this year.
There also seems to be more bipartisan interest in immigration reform legislation and the administration earlier this year issued its blueprint for reform that would make it easier to enter the United States legally and remain here, both for highly educated and low-skilled workers while also targeting employers that hire illegal immigrants. The blueprint also identifies the need to continue to rely, and improve, on technology and infrastructure to bolster security at the border.
Napolitano said that mobile technology, night vision sensors and mobile radars, are some of the kinds of technology that needs to be deployed for border security.
Despite the general interest in immigration reform in Congress, some Republicans want to make sure that the U.S. has operational control of its borders prior to any legislation being approved and they also oppose any amnesty for immigrants who are currently in the country illegally.
Michael Chertoff, Napolitano’s predecessor at the Department of Homeland Security, said that various metrics bear out that there has been a steady improvement in the United States gaining operational control of its borders the past decade. Chertoff was Homeland Security Secretary when President George W. Bush pushed for comprehensive immigration reform but was stymied by Congress.
“Never to acknowledge progress is really self defeating,” Chertoff said.