Rogers-Ruppersberger Cyber Bill Passes House

Cyber Information Sharing & Protection Act Passes with 248-168 Vote
 
WASHINGTON, D.C. –  Economic cyber spies will have a harder time stealing American business plans and research and development as the House took the first step today by passing a cybersecurity bill that will help U.S. companies better protect themselves from dangerous economic predators.

In a show of bipartisanship, the House of Representatives passed the Cyber Information Sharing & Protection Act by a vote of 248-168.  The bill gives the federal government new authority to share classified cyber threat information with approved American companies and knocks down barriers to cyber threat information-sharing.  With strong provisions built in to keep individual American’s private information private, the bill allows U.S. businesses to better protect their own networks and their corporate customers from hackers looking to steal intellectual property.

US companies and trade associations anxious to better protect their networks and their customers lined up in droves in a show of strong support for this bill, including Facebook, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Boeing, financial trade associations, AT&T, utilities groups, Intel, tech associations and many others.

“We can’t stand by and do nothing as U.S. companies are hemorrhaging from the cyber looting coming from nation states like China and Russia,” Chairman Rogers said.  “America will be a little safer and our economy better protected from foreign cyber predators with this legislation.  I commend the bipartisan effort on this bill. And I thank Ranking Member Ruppersberger for his leadership in getting 42 Democrats to join this important legislation.  I encourage the Senate to take up the bill soon so we can move it to the President’s desk.”   

“One credit card company said that they get attacked for your personal information 300,000 times a day, one company,” Chairman Rogers said during the open floor debate of the bill.  “One company in particular estimated they lost 20,000 good-paying manufacturing jobs for Americans because countries like China stole their intellectual property and illegally competed against them in the market place,” Rogers said.

"This is not just a victory on the House floor. This is victory for America," said Ranking Member C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger. "Our nation is one step closer to making a real difference protecting our country from a catastrophic cyber attack. This shows what can happen when Democrats and Republicans work together for the good of our country. This robust, open, bipartisan process made a good bill even better. I look forward to seeing it taken up in the Senate."

Chairman Rogers and Ranking Member Ruppersberger worked collaboratively for over a year with hundreds of U.S. companies, industry associations, and privacy and civil liberties groups, including the ACLU and the CDT, as the bill was drafted, and through the process of bringing the bill to the House Floor.  Their transparency in the process and open engagement with all interested parties, produced a bill that provides the protections American businesses need, while simultaneously protecting the privacy rights of individuals.

By permitting the private sector to expand its own cyber defense efforts and to use classified information to protect its systems and networks, this bill will help create a more robust cybersecurity marketplace with expanded service offerings and jobs.  More importantly, this bill does not contain any new federal spending or impose additional federal regulation or unfunded mandates on the private sector.