Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act

Floor Speech

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Mrs. BONO MACK. Madam Chair, I rise today in strong support of this bill. This critically needed legislation will help to safeguard America in the future from cyberattacks by unscrupulous and rogue nations, terrorists and cybercriminals. We need to act before a disaster takes place, not after it, and this is our chance.

As chairwoman of the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade, I have spent the past 16 months holding hearings and thoroughly examining the issue of online privacy. So as a cosponsor of this legislation, I have very carefully reviewed its privacy provisions, and I'm satisfied that it will not negatively impact American consumers.

Frankly, the privacy concerns are exaggerated. There is no bogeyman hiding in the closet, and Big Brother is not tapping into your hard drive. This bill provides absolutely no authority to the Federal Government to monitor private networks--none. Additionally, all information-sharing with the government would be completely voluntary.

The bill also encourages the private sector to ``anonymize'' the information it shares with the government or other entities, including--and this is very important to remember--the removal of personally identifiable information prior to sharing it.

Finally, the bill also requires the intelligence community inspector general to review information-sharing between the private sector and the government and to provide an annual report to the Congress on its findings.

These are very strong privacy protection features, and I applaud Chairman Rogers and Ranking Member Ruppersberger for working so hard to protect the American consumer and to make this a truly bipartisan effort.

Unfortunately, some people and some groups will say anything to try and scuttle this bill--sounding false alarms and raising imaginary red flags--despite the very real and dangerous threat posed by terrorists and our enemies if we do nothing.

Madam Chair, I strongly urge the adoption of H.R. 3523.

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