Sponsors of the Senate Cybersecurity Act (S-3414) said they were...
Sponsors of the Senate Cybersecurity Act (S-3414) said they were “baffled” by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s opposition to the revised bill and sought to correct some of what they called its recent “unfounded” mischaracterizations. The statement came in a…
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letter sent Friday to Chamber CEO Thomas Donohue by Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., Ranking Member Susan Collins, R-Maine, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., that was released Monday (http://xrl.us/bnip7y). The senators said they could not understand why the Chamber opposed their decision to embrace voluntary cybersecurity standards in the revised bill. The sponsors abandoned their proposal for mandatory minimum cybersecurity standards in a prior draft of the bill (S-2105) following “extensive discussion” with the Chamber and other stakeholders, the letter said. The Chamber said in a letter sent last week the voluntary critical infrastructure cybersecurity standards in S-3414 could be used to impose new obligations on U.S. businesses (CD July 27 p12). The senators also sought to correct the Chamber’s argument that S-3414 would eliminate the ability of the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Department of Defense (DOD) to receive cybersecurity information directly from the private sector. The Chamber said in its letter a cybersecurity approach that excludes NSA and DOD creates silos that would “diminish the timeliness and quality of the threat data exchanged.” But S-3414’s sponsors pointed to Section 707(a)(4) of the bill, which they said “makes clear that such existing and future information sharing can continue if members of the Chamber want to continue to send information directly to the NSA.” The Chamber did not comment. The Senate was scheduled to begin debate on S-3414 Monday after our deadline. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said on the Senate floor Monday the Chamber should join the effort to pass S-3414. “The Chamber of Commerce said government and the private sector should work together to develop incentives for businesses to voluntarily act to protect our nation’s critical infrastructure,” Reid said. “This legislation will do exactly that -- establish a public-private partnership to make our nation safer and protect American jobs.”