Privacy amendments flood in ahead of House cyber votes

A tidal wave of privacy-related amendments has been submitted for the two House cyber bills scheduled for votes Wednesday and Thursday.

The House Rules Committee late Monday posted lawmakers’ proposed changes. The bills would encourage companies to share more cyber threat data with the government.

Twenty-four amendments were submitted to the House Intelligence panel’s offering, which would grant liability protections for sharing cyber info with any civilian agency, such as the Treasury or Commerce departments.

{mosads}The House Homeland Security measure, which would give companies protections only when sharing data with the Department of Homeland Security, saw 38 amendments.

Both are expected to pass, backed by a broad coalition of bipartisan lawmakers, government officials and most industry groups. The White House has also indicated it might be supportive.

But privacy advocates have been hesitant, warning the measures would shuttle large quantities of sensitive data to the National Security Agency.

Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) addressed those fears with 11 privacy-focused amendments filed for the Homeland bill. Combined, the changes would strengthen language requiring personal information be stripped from the shared data and clarify that the government could only use the data for cybersecurity purposes.

House Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) also submitted a manager’s amendment making technical tweaks in the bill.

On the Intelligence side, Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) filed a similar manager’s amendment, clarifying exactly when companies would receive liability protections.

Both manager’s amendments seem likely to be incorporated into the final bill on the floor.

Reps. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and Jared Polis (D-Colo.) combined to offer the bulk of the privacy-focused amendments for the Intelligence bill.

Similar to Amash’s efforts, their changes would require more redaction of personal information before data is shared with the government, and restrict government uses of the data it receives.

Polis also joined with Rep. Kevin Yoder (R-Kan.) to try to tack on language from a separate bill that would require a warrant for law enforcement to access email. The two submitted it as an amendment to both bills.

Last Congress, the duo got more than half of the House to co-sponsor the bill, which would update the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. The measure — a huge priority for privacy advocates — has never received a floor vote.

Former House staffers say the majority of the alterations — particularly the Yoder-Polis offering — are unlikely to get full floor votes.

The Rules Committee will meet Tuesday at 5 p.m. to make the final decision.