House to vote on four cyber bills, leaves out Lungren measure

{mosads}“We have been told by the majority leader’s [Eric Cantor, R-Va.] staff that he believes it is important to proceed with a bill with bipartisan support and that his staff is currently evaluating the depth of Democratic support for moving the bill,” King said in a statement.

The Democrats on the committee voted against the Precise Act on Wednesday, accusing the panel’s Republicans of gutting their own bill to appease their party’s leaders.

The revised version of the bill would still authorize the Homeland Security Department to help critical infrastructure companies, such as electrical grids, protect their networks, but the system would be entirely voluntary.

The White House and many Senate Democrats argue protections for critical infrastructure companies should be a central piece of cybersecurity legislation.

The most prominent bill scheduled for a House vote next week is the Intelligence Committee’s Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA). The bill would tear down legal barriers that discourage companies from sharing data about cyberattacks. Civil liberty groups are campaigning against the bill, warning that it would encourage companies to hand over private user data to the government spy agencies.

Also on deck is Rep. Darrell Issa’s (R-Calif.) Federal Information Security Amendments, which would provide for stronger oversight of the security of federal computer systems.

The Cybersecurity Enhancement Act, sponsored by Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), aims to better coordinate federal research into cybersecurity.

Finally, the House will vote on a bill from Rep. Ralph Hall (R-Texas) that will reauthorize research and development of new computing technology, called the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) program.