After struggling to get a cybersecurity bill passed before the August recess, the Senate has delayed the debate until September.
The Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act has stirred debate between supporters who see it as essential to guarding against online threats and opponents who view it as another attempt to expand government surveillance and limit civil liberties.
The agreement to delay will allow for Democrats to introduce 11 amendments and Republicans 10 amendments with no limit on the time for debate, The Hill reported.
Civil liberties advocates in the Senate such as Republicans Dean Heller and Rand Paul and Democrats like Ron Wyden will offer amendments.
Wyden has led the charge against CISA in the Senate as Rand Paul has remained silent. Commenting on the bill, Wyden said “information sharing without vigorous, robust privacy safeguards will not be considered by millions of Americans to be a cybersecurity bill. Millions of Americans will say, ‘That legislation is a surveillance bill.’”
Not every proposed amendment antagonizes CISA.
Some, such as Republican Tom Cotton’s, would make it easier for government agencies to share collected data or grant legal immunity to private companies when collaborating with the government.
