A coalition of almost two dozen industry groups led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is urging the Senate to pass a bill renaming and reorganizing the Department of Homeland Security’s cyber-focused National Protection and Programs Directorate, which has been stalled in the Senate for months.
In a letter to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY), the industry groups asked the Senate to move ahead with H.R. 3359, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Act, which would rename the NPPD the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
The legislation is a top priority for DHS’ leadership and for House Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX), who crafted the House-passed version of the bill.
“Our organizations, which represent nearly every sector of the U.S. economy, urge the Senate to pass H.R. 3359, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Act of 2017,” the coalition wrote. “This legislation would deepen America’s increasingly maturing public-private efforts to safeguard cyberspace.”
The House passed its bill in December, while the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee folded it into the DHS reauthorization bill during a markup in March. The DHS reauthorization bill has since been stuck in the Senate over immigration issues, though Homeland Security Chairman Ron Johnson (R-WI) told Inside Cybersecurity earlier this week that he could decide whether to pull out the NPPD bill from the reauthorization measure “before the year’s end.”
Groups that signed on to the letter include BSA: The Software Alliance, Business Roundtable, the American Gas Association, the American Bankers Association, the Edison Electric Institute, the National Association of Manufacturers, the Internet Security Alliance, and USTelecom.
“Cyberattacks–especially ones coming from criminal groups or nation states–cannot be handled solely by industry or by the U.S. government,” the groups wrote. “Cybersecurity requires a concerted team effort, which H.R. 3359 would facilitate.” Source
| U.S. Chamber of Commerce, industry groups urge Senate passage of DHS cyber agency bill