Rep. Watson: Create ‘Office for Cyberspace’

The House passed a cybersecurity bill in the opening days of February that would requre the president to conduct an agency-by-agency assessment of federal network preparedness. But while the bill easily cleared the lower chamber, it encountered some opposition in the Senate, where lawmakers seemed to prefer a tougher, more actionable cybersecurity bill.

Sens. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) have since offered their more comprehensive alternative, which would create a cybersecurity post not too unlike the office Watson proposed Monday and devote new federal dollars to Web security programs. But it remains unclear whether other lawmakers in either the Hour or Senate still share their appetite for robust cybersecurity reform.