After years of debate, cybersecurity legislation is finally set to reach the House floor this week. Four cybersecurity bills will be considered under suspension of the rules on Thursday, including two that would enhance research and development efforts (HR 2096, HR 3834) and one that would update the laws dictating how federal civilian agencies should protect their networks (HR 4257). The House will also begin considering a broader information sharing bill introduced by the House Intelligence Committee (HR 3523), which has drawn significant concerns from privacy and civil liberties advocates, with a vote expected on Friday. Notably, the list doesn't include a bill from the Homeland Security Committee (HR 3674) on the issue of critical-infrastructure providers, a measure considered a top priority by the White House, Democrats and many cybersecurity experts.
That panel's Cybersecurity Subcommittee chairman, Dan Lungren, R-Calif., offered an amendment last week that significantly scaled back his bill's requirements, but not enough to please House leadership. CQ's Tim Starks reports a spokeswoman for Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., ascribed the bill's omission to a lack of support from Democrats, who backed away from the bill once it no longer placed the Department of Homeland Security in charge of coordinating federal cybersecurity efforts. Lungren appeared to take the warnings of experts to heart regarding critical infrastructure, despite the anti-regulatory stance struck by the House GOP. Democrats have been adamant that any cybersecurity package that doesn't address the nation's critical networks isn't likely to improve the current threat situation. The Lungren bill originally went farther than any other GOP effort in addressing critical infrastructure, though it stopped short of proposing mandatory security baselines as included in the Senate bill (S 2105). That attempt to introduce even voluntary baselines is likely a major reason the bill won't be up for a vote this week.
DATA Act on House Floor Wednesday: The House will also take up House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa's DATA Act (HR 2146) on Wednesday, which would create a central online clearinghouse for all federal spending data, along with a board to oversee the site. Issa, R-Calif., has based his transparency panel on the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board that oversaw stimulus spending. He has also posted the bill's text for the past few weeks on his MADISON platform, which attempts to open up the text of legislation for public comment. Issa's bill tracks closely with the 2006 law sponsored by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and then-Sen. Obama, which established USASpending.gov. That site's mixed track record has shown the real resistance to posting federal spending data online comes not from the top, but from within the bureaucracy. How Scarce Is Spectrum Anyhow? CQ's Ambreen Ali reports the announcement last week that Verizon Wireless will sell some of its spectrum licenses if its spectrum deal with the cable providers is approved by the government has re-ignited the old debate over whether a spectrum crunch truly exists. The National Association of Broadcasters accused wireless companies of sitting on spectrum purchased at auction rather than building it out, a charge that Verizon representatives deny. Congress recently approved incentive auctions to open up more broadcast spectrum for wireless companies, but the broadcasters have consistently questioned the need for the auctions and pushed to ensure they are completely voluntary. Lawmakers at a House Science and Technology hearing last week appeared sympathetic to the wireless companies' arguments. Several competitors and public interest groups have voiced opposition to the Verizon-cable spectrum deal, which includes confidential side agreements that would set up what critics have labeled a "communications cartel." The Department of Justice and Federal Communications Commission are both reviewing the transaction. Bill Would Expand Rural Broadband Program: Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, introduced a bill on Friday that would re-authorize the Rural Broadband Loan Program through 2017 and add a grant component to encourage broadband providers to connect small, remote, high-poverty communities. Brown helped steer $2.5 billion in stimulus funds to the USDA to expand rural broadband access; the Recovery Act included a total of more than $7 billion to expand broadband coverage. The FCC also recently revamped the largest portion of its Universal Service Fund to subsidize rural broadband providers instead of landline phone carriers, indicative of the Obama administration's focus on increasing the availability of wired broadband. But some critics question the logic of taxpayers subsidizing wired broadband providers, when statistics show low-income users are much more likely to rely on wireless connections, which don't require a separate computer. Surveys regarding broadband users consistently show cost, and not availability, is the primary barrier to adoption. Campaign Ads on PBS? Perhaps: CQ Weekly's Eliza Newlin Carney reports a surprise federal court ruling earlier this month has opened the door for public broadcasters to carry political ads. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the ban on commercial ads, but declared issue and political ads protected by the First Amendment. Public broadcasters have reacted cautiously, withholding any comment while they review the decision. The nation's more than 1,300 public TV and radio stations have operated largely commercial-free since Congress created the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in 1967. But federal funding for CPB has been in jeopardy due to a number of high-profile incidents and personnel departures at NPR last year, which angered congressional Republicans. Big Data in the Next Frontier: Ambreen Ali brings us an in-depth report for Roll Call's latest Outlook issue, which focuses on areas of innovation in the government. The Obama administration recently launched a $200 million initiative aimed at developing new tools for data mining, or sifting through terabytes of information to find the most useful pieces. The Big Data Senior Steering Group includes NASA, DHS and the Pentagon, which has fronted the bulk of the initial effort. Congress has been generally supportive of data initiatives, but the administration is expected to plow forward even if Congress approves less spending than expected. On the Move: CQ Weekly informs us that the Center for Responsible Enterprise and Trade, a new intellectual property rights group funded by Microsoft, has hired Leslie Benton as vice president of advocacy and stakeholder engagement. Benton was previously the senior vice president at PR firm Levick Strategic Communications. In addition, the Copyright Alliance, an advocacy group for the content industry, has hired Amanda Reynolds as its full-time communications director.