WASHINGTON – Tonight, Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Ranking Member Tom Carper (D-Del.) highlighted the President’s call for Congress to continue its work on strengthening our nation’s cyber security systems:
“Last year, Congress made strides in bolstering our nation’s cyber defenses by passing four bipartisan cybersecurity bills that strengthen our national security and help modernize our nation’s cybersecurity and the federal government’s cyber workforce. Tonight, the President called on Congress to continue our efforts in this critical area. I couldn’t agree more. One of our top priorities in Congress must be to ensure that businesses and other organizations large and small can improve their cyber defenses by sharing best practices and quickly getting help when a cyber attack does happen. It is essential that any information-sharing bill strike an appropriate balance between the ability to share necessary data and to protect privacy and civil liberties. Congress must act quickly to heed the President’s call and bring forth information-sharing legislation in the face of the growing and evolving cyber threat. I am committed to continuing to work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, the Administration, and stakeholders to get to work on information sharing legislation as soon as possible.”
Last Congress, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee authored several cybersecurity bills, which the president signed into law in December. Those include the Federal Information Security Modernization Act (S.2521) to update the Federal Information Security Management Act, the National Cybersecurity Protection Act of 2014 (S.2519) authorizing a National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center at the Department of Homeland Security, and two bills to improve the federal cybersecurity workforce — the Cybersecurity Workforce Assessment Act (H.R.2952) and the Border Patrol Pay Reform Act (S.1691) (which contains provisions from the DHS Cybersecurity Workforce Recruitment and Retention Act of 2014).