Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. RICHARDSON. I stand today in support of the Richardson amendment to H.R. 3523; but I would like to take a moment to thank the majority leader, Mr. Cantor, Chairman Rogers, and Ranking Member Ruppersberger for their tolerance in allowing us to come to the floor. I was ranking member of a committee that was in operation at this time, and I thank you for allowing us to come forward.

The Richardson amendment ensures that owners and operators of critical infrastructure systems that are potential targets to cyberattacks receive information about cyberthreats. Some examples of our critical infrastructure systems that this amendment would apply to are: energy facilities, banking and finance facilities, chemical facilities, dams, nuclear plants, emergency services, agriculture and food systems, water treatment systems. Many of these would be in great danger and would need information.

Every single Member of Congress has critical infrastructure sectors in their districts, whether they be public or private, and every community in this Nation has some critical infrastructure presence that should be protected and advised of threats. In my district, I have the Home Depot Athletic Center, which holds up to 27,000 people. There is the Boeing Company, which manufactures the C 17 planes. There is the Long Beach Police and Fire Department EOC center, the Long Beach Gas and Oil Department, and water treatment facilities. The numbers go on. We need to make sure that not only ports and government facilities but also private facilities are approved and entitled to have this same information.

Some inherent complications are that there are 18 different Federal Government agencies that have jurisdiction over critical infrastructure sectors. For example, the Department of Homeland Security has jurisdiction over chemical, commercial facilities, dams, emergency services, and nuclear power alone.

H.R. 3523, as currently drafted, does not mention how critical infrastructure sectors that do not fall within the jurisdiction of government intelligence agencies would receive critical cyberthreat information or have the systems in place to share information appropriately. This amendment makes an important improvement to that legislation.

I would like to commend Chairman Rogers and Ranking Member Ruppersberger, who mentioned in their testimony before the Rules Committee and the Intelligence Committee that there was a key fault here in this critical infrastructure section. I am further pleased that the Rules Committee acknowledged that by finding this amendment in order, and I urge my colleagues to consider this seriously.

While Chairman Lungren's original cyber bill did not make it to the House floor, I offer this Richardson amendment in the same bipartisan spirit that I did when his bill was brought forward in our subcommittee. Mr. Lungren and Mr. Langevin spoke earlier on the bipartisan amendment regarding critical infrastructure, hence my building my comments on that.

Richardson amendment No. 10 ensures that our critical infrastructure sectors will not be left out from receiving information that could protect their systems against a terrorist attack.

This amendment makes sure that industries most at risk of a cyberattack receive information that they need to protect the public and the facilities at large. My amendment makes explicit that critical infrastructure sectors be included in information-sharing relationships and does not include any new Federal authorities.

With that, Madam Chairwoman, I urge my colleagues to support the amendment.

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Ms. RICHARDSON. Again, I'd like to thank both the chairman and the ranking member and look forward to the opportunity to work with you.

I would just give you one analogy to consider as we move forward. As you recall on 9/11 when the planes hit those two Twin Towers, the government had the ability to notify the private airlines to scramble the planes and to demand that all of the planes would be landed because we didn't know where they were going to go.

At that point, the government had the ability to work with the private sector, with the airline industry, to communicate information that they were now becoming aware of.

I'm certainly not suggesting that we interfere with the free-flowing ideas of the Internet. What this amendment is suggesting, and I look forward to working with you in the future, is that the government does have the ability if in the event something happens with dropping some chemicals into water, for example, treatment facilities, that the government should certainly have the ability to work with those private sector companies to be able to notify them and ensure that the public is protected.

I thank you for hearing the amendment, and I look forward to working with you going forward.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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