House Homeland Security Chair: Senate Cyber-Info-Sharing Bill Has No Chance in House

The Senate's version of a cyber-information-sharing bill is doomed should it be sent over to the House in current form, said House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX). Chairman McCaul, who authored a cyber-information-sharing bill that overwhelmingly passed the House in April, said the current version in the Senate would trigger fears of more spying by the National Security Agency -- and that makes it a nonstarter in the House.

"My concern is that they have an NSA information-sharing component in there that I think would be problematic in many ways in the House," Chairman McCaul said. "I've warned them that if that kind of bill comes back, it's not going to pass, and that's the political reality." Chairman McCaul's information-sharing bill passed the House a day after similar legislation from the House Intelligence Committee. Both bills are aimed at improving the private sector's and the government's cyber defenses by making it easier for companies to share information about cyberthreats with each other and with the government. But the Senate has been slow to pick up information-sharing legislation, even after a series of high-profile data breaches at the Office of Personnel Management was made public in June. "Quite frankly, I'm getting frustrated that they cannot get this work done in the Senate," Chairman McCaul said. "This bill, if sent to the President, would probably be signed into law tomorrow."