What Next? Cybersecurity Legislation in the Senate

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With the House passing the Cybersecurity Enhancement Act last week, add one more major piece of cybersecurity legislation for the Senate to consider. Even with its near-unanimous vote, there's no guarantee that bill or any significant cybersecurity measure will pass the Senate and be signed into law by President Obama this year.

"What you are going to see are some very good bills introduced and a long series of debates leading up to the end of the year," said James Lewis, senior fellow at the public policy group Center for Strategic and International Studies. "And then the question is: Will midterm elections derail this or will they be able to get something through?"

In the Senate during the 111th Congress, four other cybersecurity bill have been introduced:

S 773: Known as the Cybersecurity Act of 2009, the measure among other things would provide for the development of a cadre of information technology specialists to improve and maintain effective cybersecurity defenses against disruption. Among all the Senate cybersecurity bills, this measure is most like the House-passed Cybersecurity Enhancement Act. Sponsored by Sens. Jay Rockefeller, D.-W.Va., and Olympia Snowe, R.-Maine, chairman and ranking member of the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, which the bill had been assigned.

S 778: This measure would establish within the Executive Office of the White House the Office of National Cybersecurity Adviser. Also sponsored by Rockefeller and Snowe, this bill was assigned to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.



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S 921: Called the United States Information and Communications Enhancement Act, or U.S. ICE, it primarily would update the 8-year-old Federal Information Security Management Act, which provides the blueprint for federal departments and agencies to secure their IT assets. Sen. Tom Carper, the Delaware Democrat who chairs the Senate subcommittee with cybersecurity oversight, is the bill's chief sponsor. The measure was assigned to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

S 1438: This bill would require the Secretary of State to submit a report to Congress on improving cybersecurity, encourage international cybersecurity cooperation and develop safeguards to protect privacy, freedom of speech, and commercial transactions for inclusion in cybersecurity agreements. Sponsored by Sen. Kristen Gillibrand, D.-N.Y. The bill was assigned to the Committee on Foreign Relations.

And Sen. Joseph Lieberman, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, has promised to introduce a comprehensive cybersecurity bill shortly.

The House-passed Cybersecurity Enhancement Act, HR 4061, hasn't been assigned to a Senate committee, but Rockefeller's panel is its most likely destination because it gives added cybersecurity responsibilities to the National Institute of Standards and Technology; the Commerce Committee provides NIST oversight.

Comparing Bills

Contrasting one bill against the others is akin to comparing apples, oranges, bananas and kiwis. They're complementary; they all aim to strengthening government IT security. But they each focus on different areas of cybersecurity, though overlaps among the bills exist. And at least three committees in the Senate have been granted jurisdiction over some aspects of cybersecurity.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D.-Nev., has called on his colleagues to work together to produce a single cybersecurity measure, and they seem amenable to that idea. It's presumed, though not guaranteed, that Lieberman's committee would vet an omnibus cybersecurity bill. But such cooperation is easier said than done.

"Predicting legislative action leads to lots of wrong answers," Alan Paller, research director at SANS, said. "What I know is that Sen. Reid gave Sen. Lieberman the lead on cyber for this session of Congress. Rockefeller and Snow are much more tuned to the research and education initiatives, so they are likely to provide a big chunk of the content of the bill, and Carper's work is also excellent and will help shape the ultimate bill."