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Mr. KING of New York. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the rule and also of the underlying bills, H.R. 1731 and H.R. 1560.
As was pointed out, I am the only Member of Congress who is on the Homeland Security Committee and the Intelligence Committee; and I was able to both take part and also to observe closely the extent to which the gentleman from Texas, Chairman McCaul, and the gentleman from California, Chairman Nunes, worked with Members on both sides of the aisle, worked with privacy groups, worked with Federal officials, government officials, and administration officials to try to make this as bipartisan a bill as possible, to ensure that privacy would be protected, but also to ensure that everything possible can be done to protect our Nation against cyber intrusions.
Now, every day there are attacks upon our infrastructure. The critical infrastructure--mostly in private hands--is being targeted; and Federal networks, databases that are vital to our national security, are under assault every second of every day.
Cyberterrorism, whether it is carried out by a nation-state, such as Iran or Russia or China, or carried out by terrorist organizations, such as ISIS or al Qaeda, is extremely damaging and threatening to our national security; and it is essential that we, especially since so much of our critical infrastructure is in the hands of the private sector, allow for sharing, that we allow companies to share information with the government, that there is mutual sharing with the government, with the private sector, so that these companies can do it without fear of being sued, without fear of liability--they act in good faith; they do what has to be done.
Every measure that was put in there--I know the gentleman from Colorado disagrees, but every measure is in there to ensure that individual rights will not be violated, that privacy will not be violated. And again, we have to look at, for instance, if the gentleman from Colorado is wrong, what this could mean to our country, how this could devastate--devastate--our infrastructure, devastate our national security, devastate our financial system.
So again, this was not something that was rushed into. And when you have both bills passing out of committee with, as far as I recall, not one dissenting vote--not that everyone was in full agreement with the bills. But the fact is this is probably as close to a consensus as you can come in the Halls of Congress on such a critical and, in some ways, such a controversial issue, to find that type of unanimity on the two committees that deal with this most significantly.
H.R. 1731 is the Homeland Security Committee bill that allows this information to be shared. The port will be the Department of Homeland Security, and that was done, again, working with privacy groups and working with those who are concerned with civil liberties, at the same time working with those who realize how absolutely essential to our security passage of this legislation is and how we have to have this type of cooperation, this type of sharing, this information sharing, and being done with the government and with the private sector working together to combat these enemies which can come at us from all directions. Again, every second of every day these attacks are being attempted and carried out.
That is the crisis that faces us as a nation. It is not as obvious as a bomb going off in Times Square, and it is not as obvious as a bomb going off at the Boston Marathon, but it is just as critical.
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Mr. KING of New York. It is just as critical and just as vital, in some ways more so, in that the ultimate result could be so devastating to our Nation.
So, Mr. Speaker, I would ask, again, passage of the rule, which I believe is obviously essential, but also passage of the underlying bills because, again, our Congress has been criticized, with some validity, for not being able to work together and for not being able to get things done. But to have such a vital, controversial issue as this, to have both committees who deal with it most closely, to have them come together, all the effort and work that went into it, to have them come together to come up with this package of legislation, this shows Congress works. It shows we take this issue seriously, and it means we are going to go forward in all we can to combat terrorism in all its forms. Right now, probably the most lethal are the cybersecurity attacks being made on us.
Mr. Speaker, I urge strong support of the rule and the underlying bill.
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