Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell suggested Thursday on the Senate floor that leaders of both parties might be able to come to an agreement on cybersecurity legislation next month, despite two rejected cloture votes on the legislation. McConnell said he believes the two sides should be able to come to an agreement on amendments to the bill (S 3414) and blamed the lack of an agreement for the GOP's decision to filibuster. McConnell's comments raised eyebrows, since most stakeholders believe the GOP is strongly opposed to not just the substance, but also the intent of the Senate bill. Industry lobbyists, particularly the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, have been dead-set against any attempt by the federal government to regulate security practices at private companies.
Democrats said as much on Thursday, with a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., dismissing the possibility that a deal could get done by the end of the year. Incoming Senate Homeland Security Chairman Tom Carper, D-Del., was similarly skeptical, but his colleagues on that panel Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and outgoing Chairman Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., both expressed hope that the legislation cold advance if both sides could agree on a defined number of amendments. Lieberman said that number could be as low as five, according to discussions with McCain and other opponents of the bill.
Perhaps they are correct, but the success of such an agreement seems dubious. The GOP's opposition to the bill is substantive and unlikely to be appeased with minor changes. A more likely road would be for a Republican senator to offer an amendment that would substitute much of the bill's text with language from the information-sharing measure passed by the House (HR 3523) earlier this year. The odds of the GOP accepting something resembling the cybersecurity bill that was rejected twice already are slim to none. An executive order from the president remains the most likely road toward establishing voluntary security baselines for critical infrastructure providers, should the White House decide to proceed.
Quotable: “The majority leader had made prior commitments to allowing a free and open debate on cybersecurity, a matter that Republicans acknowledge must be addressed especially in the areas of information sharing, and providing some degree of liability protection to those companies that do share cyberthreat information with one another and the federal government. Yet despite this commitment, the majority leader triggered this second cloture vote on the bill and filled the amendment tree throughout floor consideration of cybersecurity legislation. The Senate will hopefully move to a full and open debate of the National Defense Authorization Act. During the time that the bill is considered on the floor, and I do expect that bill to be subject to an open amendment process, my hope is that the majority leader will work with me to reach an agreement on allowing a debate on cybersecurity legislation with Republican amendments in order, especially since the ranking members of the Armed Services, Intelligence, Commerce, and Judiciary committees are all co-sponsors of a cybersecurity bill that needs to be considered as part of this debate." — Sen. McConnell All Five FCC Commissioners to Testify: House Energy and Commerce telecom subpanel Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., announced Thursday that all five FCC commissioners will testify at a Dec. 12 hearing on the upcoming spectrum auctions. Walden introduced spectrum legislation that was adopted during the debt negotiations and would limit the FCC's ability to set conditions on the spectrum auctions, which are expected to happen in 2014. FCC officials, including Chairman Julius Genachowski, complained at the time about Congress tying the hands of the commission. Bera Defeats Lungren: Democrat Ami Bera has officially defeated House Administration Chairman Dan Lungren in the race for California's 24th House District, one of a handful of races that was still undecided Thursday. Bera's victory is significant in that Lungren was one of the few members of the House GOP caucus that supported some form of cybersecurity regulations for critical-infrastructure providers. He offered a bill earlier this year that would establish security baselines similar to the Senate bill, but that legislation was stalled by his party's leadership. As chairman of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee, Lungren was influenced by his work on the cybersecurity issue and eventually became convinced of the need for some federal standards. The next chairman of the subpanel is unlikely to share those views, once again reducing the odds that the two sides can come to an agreement over cybersecurity. Preview of Tech Policy in Obama's Second Term: I stopped by TIA Now on Thursday to discuss the top tech policy priorities for President Obama's second term. Watch the video here.