As the Senate prepared to pass the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act on Tuesday, Republicans voted down a spate of amendments that would have strengthened the bill’s privacy protections.
Senators led efforts to amend the legislation in order to enhance the individual privacy protections in its provisions. However, with few Republicans and only some Democrats supporting them, the proposals fell short of passing.
One amendment, sponsored by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., would have allowed individuals whose privacy rights are violated to submit Freedom of Information Act requests against companies at fault for violating them. The amendment failed, with 32 Democrats and just four Republicans voting in its favor. The Senate Republicans were Utah’s Mike Lee, Nevada’s Dean Heller, Montana’s Steve Daines and Alaska’s Dan Sullivan.
Four Republicans did not vote, three of whom are running for president. Those three are Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Marco Rubio, R-Fla. The fourth, Sen. David Vitter, is running for governor of Louisiana.
Another amendment, offered by Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn, would have increased the standard for what constituted a “cybersecurity threat.” The same group of Republicans were absent for the vote, in addition to one more presidential candidate, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. Three of the same Republicans who voted in favor of Leahy’s amendment voted for the Franken amendment. Sullivan joined the Republican majority on that vote, while Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., joined the group of rebels.
Heller was slightly more successful in obtaining votes from his Republican colleagues for an amendment that would have protected data “reasonably believed to be personal information.” That received 29 Democratic votes and 17 Republican votes. Graham was able to make that vote, helping the majority to squeak out its defeat, 47-49. The same four absentees were again missing, a fact for which Heller blasted them later in the day.
While I’m fighting for personal liberties on the @SenateFloor, too many presidential/gubernatorial candidates are off campaigning. #privacy
— Dean Heller (@SenDeanHeller) October 27, 2015
“While I’m fighting for personal liberties on the @SenateFloor, too many presidential/gubernatorial candidates are off campaigning,” Heller wrote on Twitter. In a second message, he added, “Personal ambition should come second to fighting for Americans’ liberties on the Senate floor.” He then took aim at Sen. Paul, who was campaigning in Heller’s state, writing, “Rand Paul would’ve done a better job for the people of NV by voting here on privacy issues instead of skipping votes to be on Vegas PBS.”
The legislation, intended to free companies that share personal data about their customers with federal agencies from civil liability, is expected to pass on Tuesday after the string of amendments offered by privacy advocates. It is heavily opposed by the tech community, but supported by other business groups such as the Chamber of Commerce.
Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden was the latest to weigh in, writing on Reddit on Monday that the legislation was about surveillance more than security. “It’s not going to stop any attacks. It’s not going to make us any safer. It’s a surveillance bill. What it allows is for the companies you interact with everyday — visibly, like Facebook, or invisibly, like AT&T — to indiscriminately share private records about your interactions and activities with the government,” Snowden said.
Related Story: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/article/2574736
Paul has been an outspoken critic of the legislation, while Cruz expressed that he wasn’t familiar with it, and Rubio has been generally silent.
