Providing for Consideration of H.R. 3523, Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act; Providing for Consideration of Motions to Suspend the Rules; Providing for Consideration of H.R. 4628, Interest Rate Reduction Act; and for Other Purposes
Floor Speech
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Mr. MARKEY. This legislation might as well be called the Cyber Insecurity Bill because it fails to address the reality of cyberthreats already facing our Nation. And if this bill had a privacy policy, it would read: you have no privacy.
They would not even allow the Barton-Markey privacy language to be put in order to debate out here on the House floor.
Let's talk about what the bill does not do. Although the bill would allow the government to tell nuclear power plant operators that a new version of the Stuxnet computer worm could cause widespread Fukushima-style meltdowns in this country, would this bill require the industry to take even a single step to protect American nuclear reactors? No.
Would this bill require industry to even tell the government what it is doing to protect against a cyberthreat nuclear meltdown? No.
Would this bill require industry to even tell the government when it had experienced an actual cyberattack? No.
Now, let's talk about what this bill would do. Could companies share personal information about consumers with other companies, even if that information had nothing to do with cybersecurity? Yes.
Would companies be free from liability if they share that personal information of every American? Yes.
Could the government use personal information to spy on Americans? Yes.
In this last Congress, Fred Upton and I wrote the GRID Act, which passed by voice vote on the suspension calendar 2 years ago.
It would have said to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission: Do you have the authority to mandate grid security standards against an attack coming in from Iran or from China?
This bill does nothing to protect against the threat at the electricity grid system in this country that could lead to nuclear meltdowns. This Republican Congress still refuses to bring up the real security we need against a cyberattack. We have an all-volunteer Army in Iraq and Afghanistan, brave men and women, but they follow orders. We must give the orders to the electric industry and to the other industries to protect this country against a cyberattack. This bill does not do it.
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