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With recess finally over, the House will turn its attention this week to passing the fiscal 2013 spending bill for the departments of Commerce and Justice and the science agencies. But that doesn't mean the debate over cybersecurity legislation is over. Before the break, the House passed a package of bills highlighted by an information sharing bill known as CISPA (HR 3523) that has drawn significant concerns from privacy and civil liberties advocates. The legislation would remove barriers that prevent private companies from informing the government and one another about the cyberthreats they face. Three other bills passed would bolster federal cyber R&D efforts and update the laws governing how the civilian agencies protect their networks.
Despite widespread industry support for CISPA, White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt reiterated the administration's threat to veto the legislation if it reaches the president's desk. Appearing on C-SPAN last week, Schmidt cited now-familiar concerns about the government using information handed over for non-cyber purposes, but he also argued the House bills wouldn't go far enough to address critical infrastructure, which the White House and Democrats have insisted be covered under any cyber-legislation. National Security Agency chief Gen. Keith B. Alexander echoed that stance last week in a letter to John McCain, R-Ariz., who has led GOP resistance in the Senate to the proposed regulations for critical infrastructure providers. Alexander said minimum security standards will be necessary, but said the requirements shouldn't be too burdensome, according to a report from CQ's Rob Margetta.
The odds are slim to none for House passage of any legislation containing new regulations; the Senate bill is not expected to come to the House floor even if senators pass it. But there is also doubt whether Senate leadership can garner the 60 votes needed to approve the bill on their home turf. Industry experts have been lobbying furiously for months to create exemptions within the bill, which some cybersecurity experts claim have gutted its requirements. But more Republican votes are needed, which means those protections may be further reduced in hopes of crafting something that has a chance of becoming law.
Adding to the challenge is the fact both sides appear more concerned at this point about positioning themselves politically in the event of future attack than reaching a compromise. When asked if adopting some of the House bills would be preferable to no legislation becoming law this year, Schmidt told me firmly that he's confident that won't happen. The White House believes the tradition of bipartisanship on national security issues means cooler heads will eventually prevail, and the GOP will acquiesce to the administration's requirements. That confidence is admirable, and doubtless designed to strengthen the White House's negotiating position, but unless one side shows some sign of budging on critical infrastructure, the odds of enacting new cyber-laws this year grow smaller with every passing day.
Netflix Looks to Roll Back Video Privacy Law: Ambreen Ali has a feature in CQ Weekly on the push from Netflix to update the law that requires video rental companies to obtain customer consent before sharing their information. The Video Privacy Protection Act of 1988, known as the "Bork Law," passed Congress after the Washington City Paper published a story about Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork's video rentals during the debate over his nomination. Now Netflix wants the law changed so it can share information on what customers are watching over the Web and social media. The House passed a bill to change the law last year after Netflix lobbied lawmakers heavily, but the legislation has stalled in the Senate. Many privacy advocates see the video rental law as an ideal privacy statute and argue obtaining customer consent should be the model, not the exception. DARPA Grant Supports Interstellar Space Flight: A recent half-million-dollar grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is a small step toward NASA's goal of building an interstellar space vehicle within a century, according to a report from CQ's Chris Nehls. The grant, awarded to a team led by former astronaut Mae Jemison in January, comes as NASA's human spaceflight program is winding down following the retirement of the space shuttle program. The agency's focus has shifted under the Obama administration toward funding the commercial spaceflight industry. This month one of the leading space firms, SpaceX, will attempt a rendezvous with the International Space Station that could be a pivotal moment in the history of human space exploration. The Economist's latest print edition takes an in-depth look at the implications of the shift to commercial space travel. On the Move: Internet radio service Pandora has hired Rena Shapiro, former director of AOL's political advertising team, as its new director of political advertising sales. Shapiro worked at Google from 2003 to 2010 on the search giant's political advertising team. Conflict Mineral Rules Create Problems for SEC: CQ's Emily Cadei has an in-depth look at how rules requiring companies to disclose the sourcing of "conflict minerals" have raised, well, conflict between industry, lawmakers, and the regulators at the Securities and Exchange Commission. The rules are aimed at forcing companies to disclose where they buy rare minerals such as tantalum and tungsten, which are mined in the war-torn Democratic Republic of the Congo and its neighbors and are crucial to making electronic components. Companies are complaining about the reporting requirements, but lawmakers including Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., warned the SEC that its draft rule from December is not strict enough. The House Financial Services Committee has a hearing scheduled for Thursday morning on the impact of the new rules.