Privacy advocates and federal officials are registering opposition to a Senate cybersecurity measure, which could complicate efforts to pass legislation before Congress adjourns for the August recess.
The Senate is expected to turn to the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, otherwise known as CISA, now that Democrats have blocked debate on a bill to defund Planned Parenthood.
While not as detested by Democrats as the Planned Parenthood measure, CISA has its detractors, who say the measure needs pro-privacy changes in order to win their support.
On Monday, the Department of Homeland Security warned in a letter to Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., that the bill “could sweep away important privacy protections,” and undermine the agency’s existing program to allow private companies to share cybersecurity threats with DHS.
“The Department of Homeland Security’s letter makes it overwhelmingly clear that, if the Senate moves forward with this cybersecurity information-sharing bill, we are at risk of sweeping away important privacy protections and civil liberties, and we would actually increase the difficulty and complexity of information sharing, undermining our nation’s cybersecurity objectives.” Franken said on Monday.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., the ranking member on the Senate Financial Services Committee and a staunch privacy proponent, opposes the legislation in its current form, calling it “a flawed bill that threatens Americans’ privacy without making our personal information any safer.”
The Judiciary Committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., wants Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to consider Democratic amendments to the bill authored by Senate Intelligence Committee ranking member Dianne Feinstein, which are aimed at strengthening privacy protections that Wyden and others feared would be lost.
“If the majority leader is serious about improving our nation’s cybersecurity, he will listen to Sen. Feinstein and others who have called for a meaningful amendment process,” Leahy said. “If he wants yet another political stunt, he will try to jam this bill through the Senate just days before the August recess.”
While Democrats have not officially pledged to block the legislation, the number-three Senate Democrat, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters, “We will offer Republicans an agreement for a certain number of amendments, all relevant to the bill.”
The measure sprung from a desire among legislators to stop a massive computer hacking like the one that occurred at Sony Pictures Entertainment in November 2014, and more recently at the Office of Personnel Management that resulted in a data breach involving millions of current and former federal employees.
The Senate bill, sponsored by Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., would provide liability protection for companies in exchange for information sharing that could facilitate greater cybersecurity and the prevention of hacking.
But privacy advocates critical of the bill say it would provide the government with the power to spy on private citizens without a warrant.
“It’s a privacy-invasive surveillance bill that must be stopped,” the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights organization, told members, urging them to tweet lawmakers to express their opposition.
Democrats have already blocked the bill once.
In June, Democrats voted against attaching it as a provision to legislation authorizing defense spending. They were joined by three Republicans: Sens. Mike Lee, of Utah, Rand Paul, of Kentucky, and Dean Heller, of Nevada.
Despite vocal critics of the bill, McConnell is still hoping to complete debate and pass the measure by the end of the week, a top aide told the Washington Examiner.
They point to a June floor statement by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who said if the legislation is introduced as a standalone measure and not an amendment, the Senate could complete it “in a couple of days … at the most.”
Republicans say that’s their goal.
“We’d like to get it done,” McConnell spokesman Don Stewart told the Examiner.
