Senate Cybersecurity Bill and Amendments
Face Lengthy Debates on Senate Floor
Overview of Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (S. 754)
What is CISA:
Who Supports It?
Who Opposes It?
• Creates incentives for businesses to share cyber-threat
information with the government
• Intended to help government fight cyber attacks
• Sponsors Sen. Burr (R-NC)
and Feinstein (D-CA)
• U.S. Chamber of Commerce
• Financial Services Roundtable
• Sen. Wyden (D-OR)
• Sen. Paul (R-KY)
• CCIA (represents Google, Facebook,
Amazon)
• Apple
• Dropbox
• Yelp
• Reddit
• Twitter
• Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)
Advocates Say:
Opponents’ Concerns:
• Cybersecurity is a real threat,
and a flawed bill is better
than nothing
• Gives government too much power
to spy on American citizens
• Not enough privacy protections
• Doesn’t do enough to prevent cyber
attacks
Recent Legislative Developments:
• 22 amendments are up for debate, 8 of which have
been bundled into a Manager’s amendment in an
attempt to speed up the process
• A proposed time agreement to vote on the bill and all
amendments by Thursday was blocked by Sen. Wyden,
who is concerned about an amendment that would
expand the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
• Without a time agreement, the bill could stall and
again be set aside as time-sensitive issues, such as the
debt ceiling and budget, become more urgent
Analysis
• By some estimates, the bill has the support of 70 Senators, which is enough for its approval; however, the support of many Senators
likely depends on which amendments are approved
• Two similar bills passed the House (H.R. 1731 and H.R.1560); if CISA passes the Senate, the chambers will still have to reach a
compromise on a cybersecurity bill to send to the White House
• Sen. Wyden’s biggest concern is that the bill doesn’t mandate that companies remove any personal identifiers from data they would
share with the government; there are several amendments that address this problem, but it’s unclear if they will pass
Sources: Brian Fung, “Apple and Dropbox say they don’t support a key cybersecurity bill, days before a crucial vote,” Washington Post, October 20, 2015; Kaveh Waddell,
“Cybersecurity Bill Nears Crucial Senate Vote,” October 20, 2015