H.R. 1560 and H.R. 1731

Floor Speech

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Mr. Speaker, I voted against H.R. 1560, the Protecting Cyber Networks Act and H.R. 1731, National Cybersecurity Protection Advancement Act.

H.R. 1560 was an overly broad intrusion into civil liberties. While H.R. 1730 was more narrowly tailored and represented progress from previous cybersecurity bills that the House has considered, I continue to have reservations, particularly with the liability provisions in the bill.

Protecting ourselves against cyber-attacks is critical for national security and for a robust economy, and I strongly support taking actions to ensure that we have the best mechanisms in place to defend against cybersecurity threats. In working toward this goal, however, we cannot sacrifice important civil liberties or the privacy of American citizens. We must also ensure that companies can be held accountable if they fail to protect personal information or fail to act on cybersecurity threat information.

I will work to help these proposals to evolve so that we will consider an improved solution in the future.

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