A lawmaker who is outspoken about cyber threats pledged yesterday to continue advocating for a controversial cybersecurity bill the White House has threatened to veto.

Rep. James Langevin (D-R.I.) said he believes the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), which the Republican-led House passed last Thursday, is needed so the government and private companies can join together to fight cyber attacks. He argued the legislation provides appropriate privacy protections, despite the Obama administration’s assertion it would lead to firms giving customers’ private information to government intelligence authorities.

“While I do not believe this legislation was perfect, I certainly hope to continue to work with privacy and civil-liberties groups to allay any further concerns that they may have,” Langevin said yesterday at the University of Rhode Island’s Cybersecurity Symposium.

He argued the Republican bill represents “a good-faith effort to come together as a first step towards better cybersecurity for our nation,” and said he was “proud to co-sponsor and vote for what I believe is a very important measure.”

Langevin noted that under current law the government and private sector can’t share cyber-threat information, which he said results in “hampering our cyber security.”

“CISPA creates a voluntary information sharing network, with…rigorous privacy requirements in place that will provide private-sector and many critical-infrastructure entities with classified threat information to allow them to better secure their networks,” he maintained. “It would also permit those entities to provide limited threat information back to the federal government, help to provide situational awareness, or radar if you will…that we desperately need to better understand the nature of the increasingly sophisticated threats arrayed against…U.S. interests in cyberspace.”

He said the version of the bill that passed the House included privacy-related protections including “strict limitations on what information can be given to the government.”

The Democratic congressman said he was “a bit disappointed” the Republican House leadership has not worked “more aggressively” and in a more “bipartisan way” to address the nation’s cybersecurity challenges.

The House passed four cybersecurity-related bills last week, with CISPA receiving the most attention (Defense Daily, April 30).

Langevin said he hopes CISPA’s passage in the House “will spur the Senate to act on comprehensive cybersecurity legislation.” The Rhode Island congressman had worked with Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Calif.) on the wider-reaching Promoting and Enhancing Cybersecurity and Information Sharing Effectiveness (PRECISE) Act, a measure House leadership opted to not bring the House floor during the so-called cyber week last week (Defense Daily, April 24).

The PRECISE Act calls for setting standards for protecting critical infrastructure, something Langevin argued is needed.

He said he hopes CISPA’s passage “will spur the Senate to act on comprehensive cybersecurity legislation.” He said a bill crafted by Sens. Joseph Lieberman (I/D-Conn.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), which calls for the critical-infrastructure protections he wants, is “sorely needed.”

“So I’m hoping they will be successful in moving that legislation forward,” he added.