Senate Appropriations Subcommittee Marks Up FY 2011 Defense Bill
The Senate Appropriations Committee’s defense subcommittee said it marked up Tuesday a fiscal 2011 appropriations bill for the Department of Defense without major amendments on cybersecurity in the chairman’s mark. The measure could be used to attach cybersecurity reform amendments if Senate negotiations on an omnibus reform bill break down, said an analyst with the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
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The subcommittee approved a $669.87 billion measure ahead of a full committee markup scheduled for Thursday. The chairman’s mark to the bill did not include any major cybersecurity reform measures, according to subcommittee documents. It did contain a $20 million fund for cybersecurity pilot programs. Subcommittee spokesman Rob Blumenthal said he couldn’t confirm or deny whether major cybersecurity reform measures were added to the bill.
The bill could be used as a vehicle for cybersecurity reform if Senate negotiators fail to reach a compromise on combining bills sponsored by Sens. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said James Lewis, a senior fellow and director of the CSIS’s technology and public policy program. As of the beginning of this week, negotiators had not reached a compromise and were divided on several issues, he said. They haven’t agreed on whether the Department of Homeland Security or the White House should be in charge of civilian cybersecurity defenses, he said. They also can’t agree on liability protections for private companies that follow cybersecurity regulations. Senators declined to discuss the cybersecurity bill at a media event Tuesday after a weekly lunch in the Capitol.
The appropriations bill is a prime candidate to move cybersecurity reform measures if there’s no agreement on an omnibus bill, Lewis said. It’s a “standard trick,” he said. “They take the language they want and slip it in somewhere.” The appropriations bill is huge enough to hide provisions in, Lewis said. “They do this all the time.”