Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Carper, D-Del.,...

President Barack Obama’s recent cybersecurity executive order. “We have an opportunity to drill down on this executive order to find out more about it and to begin hearing from others what’s good and what’s not so good. I liken the president’s executive order … to Medicare … and what Congress needs to do is pass a wraparound plan, not unlike Medigap, to fill in the blanks. My hope is that what comes out of this hearing will be information, guidance and counseling that will enable us to begin to formulate what that wraparound package would be, so we have a full and comprehensive privacy policy.” The committee announced Tuesday that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and National Institute of Standards and Technology Director Patrick Gallagher will testify at the hearing scheduled for 2:30 p.m. in Room G-50 Dirksen. Also scheduled to testify are Greg Wilshusen, director-information security issues at the Government Accountability Office, and David Kepler, executive vice president of Dow Chemical. Carper would not offer a timeline for when he expects to introduce cybersecurity legislation this session: “We're not that far along yet,” he told reporters. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., recently said he’s planning to introduce a cybersecurity bill in April. Carper told reporters he’s had “some conversations” with House Republican cybersecurity leaders about legislation, including a meeting last week with House Cybersecurity Subcommittee Chairman Pat Meehan, R-Pa., and a meeting with House Homeland Security Chairman Mike McCaul, R-Texas, during a trip to Arizona last month. The House Homeland Security Committee plans a hearing on cybersecurity Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. in Room 311 Cannon. McCaul said in a press release Tuesday the hearing will explore how Congress can “build upon the Department of Homeland Security’s efforts to prevent cyberattacks in a way that promotes U.S. commerce, while not hindering its expansion.” Napolitano is set to testify at the House hearing along with Anish Bhimani, chairman of the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center; Gary Haynes, chief information officer of Centerpoint Energy; Dean Garfield, president of the Information Technology Industry Council; and Michelle Richardson, legislative counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union. “We're working to see where we can find common ground,” he said. Carper said some of the elements of last year’s Senate cybersecurity bill, like Federal Information Security Management Act reform, “are pretty non-controversial” and there is “broad agreement” on the need for better cybersecurity workforce training and development: “I think there is an understanding that we need to facilitate and encourage information sharing and we need to be mindful of the jeopardy that critical infrastructure faces.” But Carper said members of his caucus remain concerned about some “privacy issues” and liability protections for the business community: “We need to work those out. Can we? I think we can.”