Six Senate Republicans urged President Barack Obama to work with...
Six Senate Republicans urged President Barack Obama to work with Congress to pass cybersecurity legislation rather than issue an executive order, in a letter sent Tuesday (http://xrl.us/bnscsb). John Brennan, assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, confirmed last…
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month the White House is considering an executive order to secure critical infrastructure. But the six senators said the gravity of the cybersecurity threat “requires a genuine bipartisan effort to advance legislation, not a selective and unilateral executive order which simply cannot provide the incentives to encourage private sector participation and the requisite information sharing to address evolving threats.” The letter was signed by Republican Sens. Dan Coats, Ind., Saxby Chambliss, Ga., John McCain and Jon Kyl, Ariz., Kay Bailey Hutchison, Texas, and Roy Blunt, Mo. All the signers except Blunt and Kyl are sponsors of the SECURE IT Act (S-2151). The White House did not comment. Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., urged Congress to again consider the Cybersecurity Act (S-3414) as a means to help protect U.S. networks from cyberattacks. His comments came in a news release Tuesday. Carper, who sponsored S-3414, said the bill would update U.S. cybersecurity laws and provide the government with “the tools we need to combat those who seek to attack us through the Internet. I am hopeful the Senate will pass this legislation as soon as possible.” The bill remains on the Senate calendar because Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., moved to reconsider the bill in August after it became clear that GOP members would filibuster the legislation (CD Aug 3 p3). On Monday Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, threw her support behind Carper as a likely candidate to lead the Senate cybersecurity effort after Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., retires this year (CD Oct 2 p13). Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano meanwhile discussed ways to recruit and maintain a cybersecurity workforce in a meeting Tuesday hosted by the Homeland Security Advisory Council’s Task Force on Cyberskills. The council recently published a report with recommendations and objectives that they say will improve the agency’s cybersecurity team, like creating new university partnerships to expand cybersecurity training programs. “DHS is committed to working with our partners at universities and throughout the private sector to develop the next generation of cyberprofessionals to protect against evolving cyberthreats,” Napolitano said.