<div id="entryhead">
<span class="timestamp">Posted at 12:21 PM ET, 08/02/2012 <i>Washington Post</i></span>
<h1 class="entry-title"><span class="entry-title">Cybersecurity bill fails in the Senate</span></h1>
<div class="blog-byline">By <span class="author vcard"> <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/ed-okeefe/2011/02/02/ABqNUZE_page.html" rel="author">Ed O'Keefe</a></span></div>
</div><br><p><span class="imgfull"><span class="blog_caption"> (HO - REUTERS)
</span></span>A bill establishing security standards to prevent
large-scale cyber attacks on the nation’s critical infrastructure —
including water supplies and the electrical grid — failed in the U.S.
Senate Thursday, despite strong endorsements from top military and
national security officials. </p>
<p>Senators voted 52 to 46 in favor of the bill, coming up short of the
two-thirds majority necessary to advance the bill to final passage.
Failure to pass the measure further stalls years of bipartisan efforts
to establish stricter security standards and, experts say, could leave
the nation vulnerable to widespread hacking or a serious cyber attack.</p>
<p>“This is one of those days when I fear for our country and I’m not proud of the United States Senate,” <a target="_blank" href="http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/L000304">Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.)</a>,
one of the bill’s chief sponsors, said ahead of the vote. “We’ve got a
crisis, and it’s one that we all acknowledge. It’s not just that there’s
a theoretical or speculative threat of cyber attack against our country
— it’s real.”</p>
<p>In hopes of moving the bill forward, the White House and Democratic
and Republican sponsors of the measure had agreed to weaken the proposal
by making stricter security standards voluntary, instead of mandatory,
for the large private firms that control most of the nation’s
infrastructure. </p>
<a name="pagebreak"></a>
<p>On Wednesday, Adm. Mike Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff, and White House counterterrorism adviser John O. Brennan <a target="_blank" href="http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/241619-dempsey-brennan-urge-senate-to-pass-cybersecurity-legislation">voiced support for the measure</a>. President Obama even authored a rare <a target="_blank" href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444330904577535492693044650.html?KEYWORDS=Obama+cybersecurity">Wall Street Journal op-ed</a> in favor of the bill, in hopes of garnering enough votes. </p>
<p>But even voluntary standards are opposed strongly by many in the
business sector — and the Senate proposal would need to be reconciled
with a House bill that lacks any mention of standards and that focuses
instead on the exchange of cyberthreat data between industry and
government. </p>
<p>In a statement, the White House blasted Thursday’s vote. “Despite the
president’s repeated calls for Congress to act on this legislation, and
despite pleas from numerous senior national security officials from
this administration and the Bush administration, the politics of
obstructionism, driven by special interest groups seeking to avoid
accountability, prevented Congress from passing legislation to better
protect our nation from potentially catastrophic cyber-attacks,” White
House press secretary Jay Carney said.</p>
<p>
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/cybersecurity-bill-poised-for-senate-consideration/2012/07/24/gJQAZxpU7W_story.html">The challenge surrounding cybersecurity</a>
is that most of the nation’s vulnerable systems — the computer networks
that run the nation’s power, water, banking, transportation and
communications — are overseen by the private sector. Legislators have
sought to strike the right balance between regulating the private sector
and encouraging companies to voluntarily tighten security measures.</p>
<p>
<a target="_blank" href="http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/R000361/">Sen. Jay Rockfeller (D-W. Va.)</a>, another longtime cybersecurity safety advocate, called Republican opposition to the measure “reckless.” </p>
<p>“We worked hard for more than three years and now, because a handful
of Republican senators are afraid of crossing the Chamber of Commerce’s
beltway lobbyists, we may end up with nothing on this urgent issue,”
Rockfeller said Thursday.</p>
<p>Republican critics of the bill argue that any cybersecurity standards
— whether mandatory or voluntary — would place a financial strain on
private companies. They say government intervention isn’t necessary on
this issue. </p>
<p>Opponents also voted against the bill because <a target="_blank" href="http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/R000146">Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.)</a>
denied them an opportunity to propose related amendments and because
the bill — drafted quickly by its Democratic and Republican cosponsors —
never went through the normal committee process.</p>
<p>“We all recognize the problem. That’s not the issue here,” <a target="_blank" href="http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/M000355">Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)</a>
said Thursday morning. “This is a big, complicated, far-reaching bill
that involves several committees of jurisdiction,” he added. “Democrat
leaders haven’t allowed any of these committees to improve the bill or
even vote on it.”</p>
<p>But Reid also balked at proposed Republican amendments to the bill
unrelated to cybersecurity, including an attempt by Sen. Mike Lee
(R-Utah) to amend the bill with a ban on late-term abortions in the
District of Columbia. </p>
<p>Congress is slated to leave Friday for a month-long congressional
recess, and supporters couldn’t immediately say when the issue may be
brought up again for a vote. Reid voted against the measure, reserving
the right as Senate leader to reintroduce the measure at a later date.</p>
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