House Dem hopeful about Senate cyber bill

The co-chairman of the House Cybersecurity Caucus said he is hopeful about the Senate Intelligence Committee’s threat-sharing bill, though he has not seen a final version.

Rep. Jim Langevin (D-R.I.) said he’s been told that the final bill goes “pretty far” in protecting privacy and civil liberties, though “nothing is ever perfect.”

{mosads}“We need to monitor that,” Langevin said at a Bloomberg Government event on Thursday. “I think that we’re going to get to a very good place on privacy and civil liberties.”

Langevin’s tentative positivity about the Senate bill comes as privacy advocates remain disappointed.

While the Senate Intelligence Committee passed 12 privacy-related amendments during its markup, advocacy groups said the changes did little to improve the bill’s consumer protections. It passed 14-1 out of committee and is supported by major business groups.

The Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) would give companies liability protection when they tell the government about the cyber threats they face.

Greater collaboration between law enforcement and the private sector is seen as crucial for defending the United States against hacking attempts, though lawmakers disagree about the best terms for a deal.

Langevin said he has “high confidence” that a threat-sharing bill will be enacted this year, particularly once Congress deals with the reauthorization of the Patriot Act and accompanying reforms in May.

“Once that is dealt with clearly and definitively, I think it’s going to clear the deck for allowing some more of this information-sharing legislation [to pass],” he said, noting a desire among some Democrats to deal with reforming the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act first.

“Whatever [threat-sharing] bill passes,” he added, “it is still going to have to go through conference committee. That will happen just after or simultaneously with the Patriot Act.”

Langevin also predicted that a data breach notification bill will pass this year.