National Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure Protection Act, Three Other Cyber Bills Seen Likely to Pass House
A set of four cybersecurity bills the House was set to vote on Monday night appeared likely to pass with strong bipartisan support, industry lawyers and lobbyists told us in interviews before the vote. Debate on the bills had not begun at our deadline. The major bill of the four was the National Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure Protection Act (HR-3696), which would codify the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) existing role in dealing with cybersecurity issues, but would not extend the department’s powers (CD Feb 6 p7). HR-3696 also deals with DHS’ role in information sharing, but lawyers and lobbyists we spoke with said the information sharing aspect of the bill has not stirred up controversy as did the House-passed Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (HR-624) or the Senate’s Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (S-2588).
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Also up for a full House vote were two bills House Homeland Security cleared in October (CD Oct 30 p7) -- the Critical Infrastructure Research and Development Advancement Act (HR-2952) and the Homeland Security Cybersecurity Boots-on-the-Ground Act (HR-3107). House Homeland Security had also added language from HR-3107 into HR-3696. A fourth bill, the Safe and Secure Federal Websites Act (HR-3635), would require all new federal websites that collect personally identifiable information to be certified as “fully functional and secure” before they can be available to the public (http://1.usa.gov/1mVyTy3).
HR-3696 had strong bipartisan support before the House vote Monday -- House Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, was the bill’s main sponsor and leading committee Democrats also supported it. That bipartisan support was a “good sign,” said former FCC Public Safety Bureau Chief Jamie Barnett, now co-chairman of Venable’s telecom and cybersecurity practice. It’s unlikely that anyone feels HR-3696 or the other cyber bills up for a vote Monday are “the final word on what we need to do on cybersecurity, but just getting Republicans and Democrats talking about these issues and moving a bill forward would be a significant thing,” Barnett said.
The Telecommunications Industry Association was “cautiously optimistic” about the prospects for HR-3696 and the other three cybersecurity bills before Monday’s vote, said Vice President-Government Affairs Danielle Coffey. TIA has been a longtime backer of the bill but was continuing to push for sections of the bill that would affect its members -- particularly the information sharing section, she said. “We're really continuing to push for that because that can have so much benefit for securing infrastructure for our industry, for consumers and for our national security,” Coffey said.
HR-3696 and the other three cyber bills were also “rather uncontroversial bills that I would expect should move quickly,” said Jessica Herrera-Flanigan of the Monument Policy Group, former House Homeland Security staff director and general counsel. The American Civil Liberties Union endorsed HR-3696 and other privacy advocates have not raised concerns about the bill. Even if privacy advocates offered amendments to the bill, “I can’t imagine any of them being incorporated in,” Barnett said. “This bill has been negotiated back and forth a good bit, so I don’t think this would be a vehicle for that going forward.”