House OKs cybersecurity bill despite veto threat
WASHINGTON
(AP)
–
The House of Representatives ignored Obama administration objections Thursday and approved legislation aimed at helping stop electronic attacks on critical U.S. infrastructure and private companies.
On a bipartisan vote of 248-168, the
Republican-controlled House backed the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and
Protection Act, which would encourage companies and the federal
government to share information collected on the Internet to prevent
electronic attacks from cybercriminals, foreign governments and
terrorists.
"This is the last bastion of things we need to do to protect this country," Republican Rep. Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said after more than five hours of debate.
More
than 10 years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, proponents cast
the bill as an initial step to deal with an evolving threat of the
Internet age. The information sharing would be voluntary to avoid
imposing new regulations on businesses, an imperative for Republicans.
The
legislation would allow the government to relay cyber threat
information to a company to prevent attacks from Russia or China. In the
private sector, corporations could alert the government and provide
data that could stop an attack intended to disrupt the country's water
supply or take down the banking system.
The Obama administration has threatened a veto of the House bill, preferring a Senate measure that would give the Homeland Security Department
the primary role in overseeing domestic cybersecurity and the authority
to set security standards. That Senate bill remains stalled.
The Republican House Speaker, John Boehner, said the administration's approach was misguided.
"The White House
believes the government ought to control the Internet, government ought
to set standards and government ought to take care of everything that's
needed for cybersecurity," Boehner told reporters at his weekly news
conference. "They're in a camp all by themselves."
Faced
with widespread privacy concerns, Rogers and Rep. C.A. "Dutch"
Ruppersberger , the Intelligence panel's top Democrat, pulled together
an amendment that limits the government's use of threat information to
five specific purposes: cybersecurity; investigation and prosecution of
cybersecurity crimes; protection of individuals from death or serious
bodily harm; protection of minors from child pornography; and the
protection of national security.
The House passed the amendment, 410-3.
The
White House, along with a coalition of liberal and conservative groups
and some lawmakers, strongly opposed the measure, complaining that
Americans' privacy could be violated. They argued that companies could
share an employee's personal information with the government, data that
could end up in the hands of officials from the National Security Agency or the Defense Department.
They also challenged the bill's liability waiver for private companies
that disclose information, complaining that it was too broad.
"Once
in government hands, this information can be used for undefined
'national security' purposes unrelated to cybersecurity," a coalition
that included the American Civil Liberties Union and former conservative Republican Rep. Bob Barr, wrote lawmakers Thursday.
Echoing
those concerns were several Republicans and Democrats who warned of
potential government spying on its citizens with the help of employers.
"In
an effort to foster information sharing, this bill would erode the
privacy protections of every single American using the Internet. It
would create a 'Wild West' of information sharing," said Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee.
Said Republican Rep. Joe Barton, "Until we protect the privacy rights of our citizens, the solution is worse than the problem."
Countering criticism of Big Brother
run amok, proponents argued that the bill does not allow the government
to monitor private networks, read private emails or close a website. It
urges companies that share data to remove personal information.
"There is no government surveillance, none, not any in this bill," Rogers said.
Among
the amendments the House approved was one by Republican Rep. Justin
Amash, that put certain personal information off-limits: library,
medical and gun sale records, tax returns and education documents.
"I
don't know why the government would want to snoop through library
records or tax returns to counter the cybersecurity threat," Amash said.
The House approved his amendment, 415-0.
Trumping
any privacy concerns were the national security argument, always
powerful in an election year, and Republicans' political desire to
complete a bill that would then force the Democratic-led Senate to act.
The administration backs a Senate bill sponsored by Sens. Joe Lieberman, an Independent, and Republican Susan Collins, that gives Homeland Security the authority to establish security standards.
However, that legislation faces opposition from senior Senate Republicans.
Arizona Sen. John McCain,
the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said during a
hearing last month that the Homeland Security Department is "probably
the most inefficient bureaucracy that I have ever encountered" and is
ill-equipped to determine how best to secure the nation's essential
infrastructure. McCain has introduced a competing bill.
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