Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. WYDEN. Before he leaves the floor, I want to commend my colleague from Nevada. I strongly support his amendment.

AMENDMENT NO. 2621, AS MODIFIED

Colleagues, the first vote we will have at 11 o'clock is on my amendment No. 2621. This amendment is supported by a wide variety of leaders across the political spectrum, progressive voices that have focused on cyber security and privacy as well as conservative organizations. FreedomWorks, for example, an important conservative organization, announced last night that they will consider the privacy amendment that I will be offering. It will be the first vote, a key vote on their congressional scorecard.

It was the view of FreedomWorks that this amendment, the first vote, would add crucial privacy protections to this legislation. The point of the first amendment we will vote on is to strengthen privacy protections by requiring that companies make reasonable efforts to remove unrelated personal information about their customers before providing data to the government. It says that companies should take these efforts to the extent feasible. Let me say that this truly offers a great deal of flexibility and discretion to companies. It certainly does not demand perfection, but it does say to these companies that they should actually have to take some real responsibility, some affirmative step.

We will have a chance, I guess for a minute or so, when we get to the amendments, but for purposes of colleagues reflecting before we start voting, the first amendment I will be offering is backed by important progressive organizations, such as the Center for Democracy and Technology, and conservative groups, such as FreedomWorks, which last night said this is a particularly important vote with respect to liberty and privacy. It says that with respect to the standard for American companies, you just cannot hand it over, you have to take some affirmative steps--reasonable, affirmative steps--before you share personal information.

I yield the floor.

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Mr. WYDEN. Madam President, virtually all agree that cyber security is a serious problem. Virtually all agree that it is useful to share information, but sharing information without robust privacy standards creates as many problems as it may solve.

The first amendment I am offering is supported by a wide variety of organizations across the political spectrum because they want what this amendment would do; that is, reasonable efforts have to be made to strike unrelated personal information before it is handed over to the government. Without that, you have a flimsy standard that says: When in doubt, hand it over.

I urge colleagues to support this amendment. It is backed by progressive groups and conservative groups.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to add Senator Warren as a cosponsor to my amendment.

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