Cyber Bill Not Likely Until Lame Duck Session, Says Lieberman
Senate negotiators are looking to a lame duck session instead of September to pass an omnibus cybersecurity bill, Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., told us Wednesday. Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is undecided about attaching cyber measures to the fiscal 2011 Defense Department appropriations bill, said an analyst, though Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., is considering it.
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Senate staffers continue negotiating an omnibus cybersecurity bill, Lieberman said after a Senate Homeland Security hearing. Negotiators didn’t think they would have a bill this month, he said, and they're hoping for a bill by the session after the November elections. Asked whether the Senate will use the defense appropriations bill as a vehicle for cybersecurity reform, Lieberman emphasized that negotiators continue working on a separate bill.
Reid hasn’t decided whether to abandon the talks and attach the cybersecurity bill to the defense appropriations bill, said Jim Lewis, director of the Science and Technology Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Carper is advocating the addition of FISMA reforms to the defense appropriations bill, said Lewis, who based his statements on discussions with Senate staff Wednesday. Comments from Carper’s staff weren’t available right away.
There’s a “snowball’s chance in hell” Sen. Lieberman will be able to get a stand-alone bill through a lame duck session of Congress if it gives the Department of Homeland Security significant power to regulate cybersecurity, an industry lobbyist said Wednesday. The approach lacks political support in the Senate and the White House, the lobbyist said. The lame duck session probably will be highly politicized, because Republicans are poised to win back the House and pick up Senate seats, the lobbyist said. They oppose giving Homeland Security expanded powers over critical infrastructure as envisioned by Lieberman’s cybersecurity bill, S-3480, the official said.