Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015--Motion to Proceed
Floor Speech
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Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I will be brief.
I understand why our colleagues want to respond in some way to the horrendous hack at the Office of Personnel Management. I wish to say to my colleagues that it needs to be a response that is going to work. My concern is that this bill, in its present form, will create more problems than it solves, and it would be a mistake to bring it up without agreeing to an inclusive process for considering relevant amendments.
I appreciate that the sponsors of the bill have been working on a managers' amendment to address some of the very serious concerns that have been raised. My own view is that the bill needs a lot more work. For example, the managers' amendment does not fix the provision of this bill that will allow private companies to hand over large volumes of their customers' personal information to the Government with only a cursory review, even if that information is not necessary for cyber security.
Cyber security experts and privacy advocates have been raising concerns about these issues for many months. They state that they have sent something like 6 million communications to the Hill in the last few days.
For me, the bottom line is that the legislation, as it stands today, doesn't do a whole lot to protect U.S. networks against sophisticated hacks, and it will do a lot to undermine the privacy rights of the American people.
I see the distinguished senior Senator from California here, and I know she has a different view. My colleague from North Carolina is here. I look forward to working with both of them and the Senate and hope that we will have an inclusive debate that will ensure that all sides get a chance to raise their concerns.
Cyber security is a very real problem in America. My constituents have been hacked. In fact, the Chinese were indicted for hacking my constituents. Information sharing can play a valuable role. Yet information sharing without vigorous and robust privacy safeguards will be seen by the American people as a surveillance bill. That is a fact.
I yield the floor.
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