McConnell presses Senate to finish cyber bill this week

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that the Senate could pass a long-stalled cyber bill before leaving for a five-week break, but it will require cooperation from lawmakers.

 

“With cooperation, we can pass the bipartisan bill this week,” the Republican leader said from the Senate floor. “There will also be opportunity for members of both parties to offer amendments.” 

 

{mosads}McConnell added that senators should be working to get amendments lined up for a potential vote. 

 

The Republican leader’s comments come after he filed cloture on proceeding to the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) on Monday. The move paves the way for a procedural vote on Wednesday. 

 

McConnell previously tried to attach the cyber bill to an annual defense policy bill, but Democrats blocked the effort, saying they wanted more time to offer changes to the legislation. 

 

Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) have circulated a draft manager’s amendment that would address some of the concerns of privacy advocates and could speed up consideration of the bill. 

 

But, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) suggested Monday evening that the legislation doesn’t go far enough. 

 

“The managers’ amendment does not fix the provision of this bill that will allow private companies to hand large volumes of their customers’ personal information over to the government with only a cursory review,” he said. “[It] doesn’t do a whole lot to protect U.S. networks against sophisticated hacks, and it will do a lot to undermine the privacy rights of the American people.” 

 

McConnell pushed back against that criticism on Monday, saying that the bill includes “strong measures to limit the use, retention and delusion of consumers’ personal information. Information sharing with the government would also be voluntary.” 

 

Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) added that his caucus would back taking up the cyber bill “if we can get an assurance that Democrats can offer relevant amendments.” 

 

Reid added that the Senate should have already dealt with cyber, and suggested that Republicans previously tried to kill cyber bills when Democrats were in the majority, adding that “what was good for our nation’s security was bad for the Tea Party Republicans.”