Sen Wyden pushes back on cyber, intel bills

With just days left before the August recess, Sen Ron Wyden (D-OR) is helping to lead a grassroots campaign against the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA). The bipartisan bill encourages private companies to share information with the government about cyberthreats after a number of high-profile hacks of federal agencies and firms like Sony, Target and Anthem. For similar reasons, Sen Wyden also placed a hold on the 2016 intelligence authorization bill because of a provision from Sen Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) that would require social media companies like Twitter to report terrorist activity on their sites to the government.

Though they generated little press coverage, the moves underscore Sen Wyden’s willingness to thwart progress on widely supported bills to fight what he considers overzealous government surveillance. Civil libertarians increasingly call Sen Wyden the Senate’s leading voice for Internet privacy, a role that endears and alienates him from different parts of the technology world. Fighting CISA and the intelligence provision has also made Wyden a thorn in the side of leaders from both parties who are eager to demonstrate that they take seriously the tasks of improving federal cybersecurity and hampering terrorist activity online.