Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid brushed off concerns within his own caucus about civil liberties in the ongoing debate over cybersecurity legislation.
Reid, in urging his colleagues on Wednesday to pass the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA), bemoaned corporate lobbyists’ role in the death of proposals put forth while Democrats were in the majority, overlooking concerns from the left.
“We had a comprehensive cybersecurity bill on the floor three years ago, much deeper and better than this one. Three years ago,” Reid said. “But our Republican colleagues blocked us from even debating the bill. We couldn’t debate the bill,” he added, referencing its failure to pass cloture. “Why? They were told, the Republicans were told the Chamber of Commerce didn’t like it.”
But while the US Chamber of Commerce lobbied strenuously to stop it, the Cybersecurity Act of 2012 had the support of four Republicans and the right-wing independent Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.). It would have been enough for then-Majority Leader Reid to overcome a filibuster if all Democrats had been on board.
Among those who opposed it were Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.)–two lawmakers who have, since 2011, been warning the public about some of the broad government surveillance techniques revealed by Edward Snowden in 2013.
“In its current form, the Cybersecurity Act does not sufficiently safeguard Internet users’ privacy and civil liberties, nor would it create the correct incentives to adequately protect the nation’s critical infrastructure from cyber threats,” Wyden said after the bill died in November 2012.
“I voted against ending debate on this bill last time and I voted no again today because this bill needs improvement,” Merkley said in a similar statement.
“The bill provides private companies with broad new authority to collect and monitor Americans’ communications, while failing to require industry to make changes which would better protect our nation’s infrastructure,” he also charged.
Reid had also sought to bring up CISA in August 2012. It was stopped in a similar fashion–in a motion to invoke cloture, with five Republicans and Lieberman backing the legislation.
CISA was introduced this week by Senate Intelligence Committee chair and the body’s ranking member, Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).
According to The Washington Post, its backers, despite opposition from some influential Silicon Valley players, believe the bill has the support of 70 senators—more than enough to overcome the threat of a filibuster. Wyden is leading the charge against it.
Feinstein and Burr, in assembling a bipartisan amendment process, neglected a proposal from the Oregonian that he feels “most strongly about.” The legislation would have established “a system to review all cyber threat data passed to the government and remove any personal information,” according to The Hill.
“We’ve always been told this is about threats, this is about threats to our country, our institutions,” he said. “Why do you need people’s personal information?”
