{mosads}The planned meeting comes after Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, called the White House “irresponsible” for failing to reach out to Republican lawmakers and businesses about a cybersecurity order.
“Why you wouldn’t want input from the outside on this stuff is beyond me,” Rogers said last week. “And that tells me what kind of product you’re going to get too, would be my guess.”
Rogers is the author of the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), which passed the House in April. The measure would encourage companies and the government to share information with each other about cyberattacks. But the White House threatened to veto the bill over concerns that it would give spy agencies access to people’s personal information.
The White House endorsed a separate Senate bill, the Cybersecurity Act, which included tougher privacy protections and would have set government security standards for critical infrastructure, such as gas pipelines and banks.
But Republicans blocked the Cybersecurity Act, arguing that the standards would burden businesses and do little to improve security.
The potential executive order is expected to give the Homeland Security Department the authority to develop voluntary cybersecurity standards for critical infrastructure. The president’s legal authority to enact the information-sharing provisions without congressional approval is limited.