Cybersecurity Act of 2012 - Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

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Mr. CARPER. Mr. President, this is the first opportunity we will have had since returning from the election to cast a vote on a meaningful piece of legislation. As legislation goes, it is about as meaningful as any we are going to come across for a while.

If we were in the minority and the Republicans were coming to the floor and asking us to support moving to a bill so we could debate it, offer amendments to the bill, I would hope we would do that. For our Republican friends who are fearful they are not going to have a chance to offer these amendments, Senator Lieberman, the chairman, the ranking Republican Susan Collins and myself, all cosponsors of the bill, say we will work very hard to make sure any amendments that are relevant and germane to the bill can be offered, can be debated.

We worked a similar process with the postal bill. We ended up having 50 or 60 amendments. They were not all relevant or germane. At the end, we had a lot of amendments and the chance for everyone to be heard. Some of those amendments were not relevant or germane. As long as amendments are relevant and germane to this underlying legislation on cyber security, we will work very hard to make sure they have their opportunity to be heard and to vote on their proposals.

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