Executive Order in the Works to Enact GOP-Blocked Cybersecurity Bill
Democratic senators are urging President Obama to quickly issue an executive order to put into effect cybersecurity legislation killed by a GOP filibuster last month.
“Senate Republican opposition to this vital national security bill, coupled with the deeply-flawed House information sharing bill that threatens personal privacy while doing nothing to protect the nation’s critical infrastructure, is a profound disappointment,” the White House said at the time.
The bill would have given the government three tools that advocates say are needed to beat back cyberattackers: a focus on protecting infrastructure such as water and power grids, new information sharing on threats between the government and private industry, and new Homeland Security powers to guide the federal cybersecurity strategy.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), in opposing cloture on the bill, said it should have been subjected to the proper committee process and called the rushed legislation lacking in transparency and “a ploy to advance the fiction that we are focused on national security.”
“As I have said time and time again, the threat we face in the cyber domain is among the most significant and challenging threats of 21st century warfare. But this bill unfortunately takes us in the wrong direction and establishes a new national security precedent which fails to recognize the gravity of the threats we face in cyberspace,” McCain said on the floor in August.
The senator said a cooperative relationship between the government and private sector is needed, not “an adversarial relationship rooted in mandates used to dictate technological solutions to industry.”
“In addition to the problems with the information sharing provisions, the critical infrastructure language grants too much authority to the government, failing to consider the innovative potential of the private sector,” McCain said.
McCain was among Republicans who expressed disappointment that Congress broke for the August recess without coming to a bipartisan agreement on cybersecurity legislation as the GOP-led House did.
“When it returns next month, the Senate should address cybersecurity, but not in the ‘take it or leave it’ manner the Majority Leader pursued. Instead, it should be done in a manner that ensures our security, utilizes the most innovative aspects of the private sector and the government, and does not harm our economy. This critical effort should not fall victim to partisan politics in an election year,” he said in an Aug. 14 statement along with Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Dan Coats (R-Ind.), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), and Richard Burr (R-N.C.).
As one of many things on the Senate’s plate in the short break between the summer and campaign recesses — the farm bill, sequestration, and the continuing resolution to fund the government for the next six months among them, with debate on the Veterans Jobs Corps Act on the schedule for tomorrow and recess expected Thursday — a quick legislative fix is unlikely.
But in a “We Can’t Wait” administration, as branded by Obama, pushing through a bill stalled in the legislative branch by executive fiat would hardly be unprecedented.
Without issuing an executive order, in June Obama ordered the Department of Homeland Security to grant “deferred action” status and a path to work authorization for illegal immigrants who arrived in the country as children. The “prosecutorial discretion” move was hailed by DREAM Act supporters who had long struggled to move legislation on the Hill.
It was criticized, though, by those who saw the executive branch countering the will of legislators to meet the demands of the president’s party.
Trojan Horse Alert. It’s about censorship.
Has the potential to be far worse than that….and why is it a crisis all of the sudden? Right before the election? By someone that is retreat on all fronts mode? I’m a little dubious of exec decrees based on how vague and loosely worded they are.
Ominously, but not unpredictably, the Thug-in-Chief – and his lawless surrogates – are aiming for TOTAL control.
Via incremental stealth acts, the Radical-in-Chief is behaving like a future dictator-in-Chief, under the guise of national interests. Ain’t that a hoot. Right after one foreign security disaster after another, the most out of control regime in U.S. history is seeking to heap another ! executive order on the nation.
Of course, for the people’s own good.
The following spells it out, executive fiats and all – http://adinakutnicki.com/2012/08/19/shoring-up-barack-hussein-obamas-second-term-plans-addendum-tobarack-hussein-obamas-deconstruction-plans-green-wise-via-the-economy-disarming-the-citizens-via-gun-control-commentary-by-ad/
Barack HUSSEIN Obama – the most dangerous man in the free world!
Timing is everything…It’s a program waiting on a decree.
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/05/nsa-college-students/
Not to mention that hands have been slapped already.
http://www.businessinsider.com/nsa-spying-4th-amendment-2012-8
Does protecting network vulnerabilities within infrastructure related industry require a bill? Sounds like DHS wants the technology of other agencies to me.
Yep! Stasi anyone???
So Congress is now irrelevant? No wonder I call Dear Liar a fascist.
Sheesh! It took obama about 48 hours when he was first installed to undo all of Reagans accomplishments. It’ll take President Romney a month to undo all of obamas exec orders. And that should be his first order of business – have all obamas exec orders placd before him and use the same tool to reverse ALL of them.
The first one should be granting a waiver to all citizens for obamacare.
When O issues an executive order in or around Nov 6, 2012 short circuiting the election or election results, will any of the myriad law enforcement agencies obey his command? Will the people take it calmly? What do you suppose will be the reaction? Just curious.
The odds of that happening are very small, but should it happen welcome to the second civil war.
The trouble with any action boils down to how one interprets “the appropriate role of government in the protection of critical infrastructure,” and I’m afraid once the government gets involved any action it wants to take, good or bad, will be considered, de facto, an “appropriate role.”
Obama knows that once a feature is added to the government it becomes, not temporary, but permanent. From past experience, we should not expect a new Republican administration and/or congress to roll back anything, despite the rhetoric and posturing. Some form or all of Obamacare is with us – we’ve already decided that ‘free’ medical care’ is a right. This cybersecurity regulation will create a new office dedicated not to the most beneficial uses but to what the government in its malevolence deems to be proper. Forget cooperation between the private and government sectors, forget it.
I’m always chastened by the promises of Republicans to do away with the Department of Education once Reagan was elected. It was to be a high priority. Never happened, not even a serious effort, and now it has become one of the most destruction sectors in destroying the used-to-be excellent education system in the country. It’s still around and still generating destructive policies. And it will be with us until, well, hell freezes over.
We don’t need another extra-congressionally appointed czar or department created out of whole cloth by the executive branch – Are we to be ruled again, after 250 years, by royal fiat?
some investment in cybersecurity is needed, let’s not go off the deep end here. I’m with Hubbub tho we don’t need new fed government authorities. why can’t stimulus spending go toward a small cadre of postdocs and we can prob keep up with the back rooms of st. pete and beijing
Folks, when we start politicizing national security the Muslims will win.
It’s politically lethal to be politically correct…..and be crass political point-scoring rivals where national security is concerned…..a blister-pox on both political parties until they pull their heads out of the sand.
Ostrich feathers are flying all over the place……remember the inter-service rivalry about code breaking knowledge just prior to those Japanese (Mitsubishi) bombers opening their bomb bay doors over Pearl Harbor? ……remember the intelligence sharing rivalry disaster around 11 Sept ’01?
Reid and Boehner ought to be locked up in a conference room with just enough bread and water to last a few days until they agree on national cyber-security….then that ultimatum should be presented to the Chameleon Obama to sign, or….both Reid and Boehner walk away from Capitol Hill.
Easier said than done. But it must be said.
Makes me long for the days of the sane democrats. With Johnson all we had to worry about was escalation. Since Carter we have had to worry about emasculation… diplomatically on the world stage (Carter), Clinton destroying our military and now obama neutering what is left of our constitution.
Johnson doesn’t seem so bad now.
More Fed control of the internet + NDAA = You’re disappearing in the middle of the night if you say something negative about Barack the Sun King (or his administration) on Facebook or Twitter.
This government is in meltdown mode. Any executive orders issued over the course of years can be rescinded immediately after Romney takes office. We know that the president has never understood the legislative process. He came into office thinking that governments “run things” and has acted accordingly.
The czars go.
The shadow appointees go.
Congress will once again be required to do its job for good or ill and we will be able to support their effort in the former case and remove them in the latter.
This administration is is meltdown. It’s only a matter of a short time, now.
Again, it is going to be so UGLY over the next six weeks that you will be tempted to lose faith. Don’t. Our numbers are astonishing. I haven’t met one democrat (of working age, not in the pub. sector) who is voting for Obama. A LOT
of them are business people. The others work with their hands.
They are, in no particular order:
Pro-Free Enterprise
Pro-Life (50%)
Pro-Energy
They do not like this governance, but they love the country.
They do not equivocate on the Judeo-Christian v muslim shariah subject. Muslims are welcome to live by our laws, period.
They like their privacy and this government has made them very uncomfortable in
so short a time that they see the democrats as problematic on the issue.
They haven’t forgotten our government intruding on their computer screens,
accusing them of spreading misinformation about Obama and his policies. That
was scary.
They hate Obamacare and the nightmare it represents for them. Prvt. Sec. union
administrators do not reflect the memberships’ concerns.
On and on and on.
What these people hate, and they do HATE, is the loss of freedom at an accelerated pace. They are tired of wars which snatch defeat from the jaws of victory at a higher cost in life that the previous administration’s 8 years.
They are tired of being coerced.
They are tired of PSA’s telling them to feed their children breakfast, the endless “to do” list that can never be satisfied.
They are tired, bone tired, of this administration. And that’s just the democrats in my area.
Respectfully Terence57, I hope to heavens you are right. Because frankly, I hear the same thing here where I live (in the bitter clingers region), and yet those same people are either staying home or pulling the lever for Obama anyway. And the logic for this stance you ask? Succinctly put by my grandmother-in-law, “Well what would you have us do? Vote for Romney? He’s….rich!” I shite you not!
Indeed, what other purpose would a grandmother-in-law serve than to make one’s day just a little bit longer…?
I get your drift. I live in the rust-belt. Coal, steel, that sort of thing. Well, still coal, anyway. Think of it this way, do you know anyone who’s voting for Romney who wouldn’t crawl through broken glass on a cold rainy day to do it?
On the other side, you know that enthusiasm for the president isn’t there. We win because we participate with vigor. And when I say “we,” I’m talking about everyone who rejects this administration, whatever their affiliations.
Best, T
Soooo, you know my Grannie-N-Law?? Lol!
Right you are I must admit. I just get so flustered when people are willfully blind. This always astounds me…really!
Best to you also,
RK
Wait, it was the House Republicans that voted for CISPA, a government Internet bill, is blocking this? Wait, the Republicans voted along party lines for CISPA. And now they’re getting their panties in a bunch over this when CISPA allows the military to monitor your web traffic and email, including allowing the military to intercept and censor your email with you none the wiser?
The Republicans don’t care about the death of Internet privacy. And neither do the Democrats.
Sadly, L.A. is correct. Both political parties love big government and endorse the most intrusive legislation ever contemplated in this country. Pay no attention to the complete state control robot grinning at you from every branch of government. It just needs a few tweaks and adjustments and pretty soon we will all be safe, from everything. The difference between Romney and Obama on total state control? Nothing you will notice.
Google Spans Entire Planet With GPS-Powered Database BY CADE METZ 09.19.12
http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2012/09/google-spanner/
Thanks Washington76.
Let’s not forget that while all of us are worried (rightly so), Google is big buds with government already. Remember all of the “town hall” like gatherings in which Google guys were pushing for higher taxes? I’m sorry I don’t have the links here, but anyone have links for that too? There were gads of reports about stuff like this.