President Obama’s privacy and cyber bills are the GOP’s first big test at governing

[Commentary] How the nation's gridlocked legislature handles President Barack Obama's tech-focused legislative proposals will tell us a great deal about what we can expect from President Obama's remaining years in office.

Passing the president's initiatives should be relatively straightforward as most of the proposals he has put forward have been the subject of discussion among lawmakers. Privacy and cybersecurity should be low-hanging fruit, said David Vladeck, a Georgetown University law professor. "Both houses of Congress have at various times passed various pieces of legislation on data security," he said. "By and large, these are not contentious issues along partisan lines." But cybersecurity and privacy could trigger a fight among committees for responsibility for the issues. And just because the issues attract bipartisan support doesn't mean it'll be easy to strike a bargain. Expect an intense lobbying effort by industry to defeat any new rules that impose burdensome requirements.