WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV, Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, and Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME) issued the following statement today on the Obama Administration’s Cybersecurity Policy Review:

“We applaud President Obama for highlighting the extraordinarily serious issue of cybersecurity.  No other President in American history has elevated this issue to that level and we thank him for his leadership. 

“As members of both the Senate Commerce Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee, we meet at the legislative crossroads between our national security and economic security.  Cybersecurity is an integrated matter of intelligence and economic viability and our policies must reflect this connectivity.
                                
“As highlighted in our bipartisan legislation, The Cybersecurity Act of 2009, we agree with the establishment of a cybersecurity policy official who will lead the interagency process throughout our government, and direct the coordination between the public and private sector.  We have learned the hard way in recent years that, tragically, “stovepiped” national security systems and failures in synchronization can leave America vulnerable to attack, and bureaucratic confusion can cripple our response to a disaster. 

“We strongly urge the President to follow through on his groundbreaking leadership on this issue by giving this “cyber czar” the heft and authority the position requires – this advisor should report directly to the President on all cyber matters.  There is no room for error, and no room for bureaucratic turf battles.  We need to act now - the time to combat cyber terror was yesterday.”

BACKGROUND ON ROCKEFELLER SNOWE BIPARTISAN CYBERSECURITY ACT OF 2009

Our bipartisan legislation, The Cybersecurity Act of 2009, is a roadmap to a secure cyber future – one that effectively brings public and private together.  

“We believe the Administration must:

• Raise the profile of cybersecurity by establishing an Office of the National Cybersecurity Advisor within the Executive Office of the President.  This Advisor must serve as the lead official on all cyber matters – reporting directly to the President and coordinating with the intelligence community, government agencies, Congress, and the private sector.

• Create state and regional cybersecurity centers for small and medium sized businesses.  These centers would assist small and medium sized businesses in easily adopting cybersecurity measures. 

• Foster innovation and creativity by increasing the federal cybersecurity research and development programs at the National Science Foundation (NSF), and requiring the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to establish measureable cybersecurity standards and best practices that are applicable both to government and the private sector. 

• Create an information sharing clearinghouse in which government and industry work together in real time to identify cyber threats and vulnerabilities. 

• Create a Cybersecurity Advisory Panel of experts from industry, academia, and non-profit advocacy and civil liberty organizations to review and advise the President.

• Require the President’s Cyber Advisor to put civil liberties protections front and center.  Our aim is to improve the nation’s security – and by this we mean, the security of American lives, property, and civil liberties.

• Clarify the President's authority to protect cyber systems in the face of an attack or imminent high-level threat to national security, comparable to the way that the President exercised his authority on September 11, 2001, to temporarily ground all aircraft in U.S. airspace. 

• Above all, we strongly encourage all agencies, Congressional Committees, and businesses to work together.  Cybersecurity is an issue that cuts across every sector of our government and our economy.  Territorial fights are not new to Washington, but on the issue of cybersecurity, infighting could have devastating consequences.” 

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