Senators meet to move on cybersecurity

A bipartisan group of senators met on Wednesday morning to discuss how to bridge their differences on cybersecurity legislation.

The meeting comes as the Senate is expected to move to Sen. Joe Lieberman’s (I-Conn.) cybersecurity bill as soon as Wednesday. The participants in the meeting included Lieberman and the co-sponsors of his bill, as well as Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and some of the backers of his competing cybersecurity measure.

{mosads}Other participants included senators who have been involved in a compromise effort on the issue.

The meeting focused on identifying the specific issues members have with Lieberman’s bill, particularly the critical infrastructure section, according to an aide familiar with the meeting. That section proposes to create a voluntary program where operators of critical infrastructure would certify that they meet security standards developed by a government-led council in exchange for incentives.

Republican senators and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have raised concerns that provisions in that section would saddle operators of critical infrastructure with burdensome regulations.

Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), a co-sponsor of McCain’s bill, said no agreement was reached at the meeting, but noted it was positive that members were discussing the issue.

“We just had all the three different groups together sitting around the table. That’s an indication that everybody understands the importance of the issue,” he said. “We have major differences, and we’re just talking through them to see if we can resolve at least some of them, but we’re nowhere near a resolution.”

Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) struck a similar tone and was vague about whether the group would actually find a middle of the road solution they could move forward on.

“There are a lot of areas to find common ground, that won’t be the problem. The problem is on the one or two or three difficult issues, can we come to cloture on those?” he said. “I don’t know if that’s going to happen, but I think it could.”

Kyl said he met with the Chamber on Wednesday to discuss concerns with the bill. He had worked with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) to draft a compromise framework on the critical infrastructure provisions, which Lieberman adopted into a revised version of his bill.

Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) said there was “such good will” in the room despite the varying views members have on the legislation.

“You had everybody who’s been working on this in the same room at the same time, talking with each other, working through issues and trying to come up with good policy and pragmatic solutions,” Mikulski said.

The question of whether security standards for critical infrastructure operators should be “mandatory versus voluntary” was discussed at the meeting, she said. Mikulski had been involved the Whitehouse-Kyl discussions.

All the co-sponsors of Lieberman’s bill — Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) — attended the meeting, according to a Senate aide. Sens. Chris Coons (D-Del.), who participated in the Whitehouse-Kyl talks, also participated.

The co-sponsors of McCain’s bill, the Secure It Act, that attended the meeting included Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) and Dan Coats (R-Ind.).

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is expected to move Lieberman’s cybersecurity bill forward as soon as Wednesday.