Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. GOODLATTE. I thank the gentleman from Maryland, the ranking member, for not only yielding me this time, but also for the great work that he has done, and also the great work that Chairman Rogers has done. They have worked together in a bipartisan fashion to accomplish something very, very important to accomplish in terms of fighting cyber terrorism, cyber crime, and making sure that we are safe in this country from cyber attacks to which we are very vulnerable today.

I also want to thank the gentleman from California for his amendment. I support efforts to make it absolutely clear that this legislation does not in any way authorize the surveillance of American citizens.

I also want to thank Chairman Rogers and Ranking Member Ruppersberger for working with me to enhance the liability provisions in the legislation, for working with me to address some jurisdictional issues in the bill that affected the Department of Justice and the House Judiciary Committee.

I would also like to note that the President's statement in opposition to this bill insists on exposing our best technology providers to even more lawsuits when they are simply helping to defend our Nation against cyber attacks. The President's opposition statement expresses a deep distrust of private industry that America has rejected since its founding.

The bill before us today instead welcomes the private sector and acknowledges that we need the best minds in the country to help protect our citizens from ever-evolving cyber attacks by the likes of China and Iran. And the work done by the chairman and the ranking member to improve the provision of this bill, working with my committee and my staff to make it clear that we have a definite definition of what constitutes good faith and what constitutes circumstances under which a business that does not act in good faith would be exposed to lawsuits and liability, is one that helps protect the privacy of American citizens, because those citizens will be assured they will know under what circumstances a business has exceeded its authority under the law and be protected and have a clear right to bring an action under those circumstances. And the businesses themselves will be protected because they will not share information if they know they are not acting in good faith, because they know what the definition of good faith is in the bill.

So the gentleman from Michigan, the gentleman from Maryland, the chairman and ranking member, have done a great job with this legislation. I support their efforts and urge my colleagues to do the same.

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