A US Senate committee has approved a wide-ranging cybersecurity bill that some critics have suggested would give the US president the authority to shut down parts of the Internet during a cyberattack.
Senator Joe Lieberman and other bill sponsors have refuted the charges that the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act gives the president an Internet "kill switch." Instead, the bill puts limits on the powers the president already has to cause "the closing of any facility or stations for wire communication" in a time of war, as described in the Communications Act of 1934, they said in a breakdown of the bill published on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee website.
The committee unanimously approved an amended version of the legislation by voice vote Thursday, a committee spokeswoman said. The bill next moves to the Senate floor for a vote, which has not yet been scheduled.
The bill, introduced earlier this month, would establish a White House Office for Cyberspace Policy and a National Center for Cybersecurity and Communications, which would work with private US companies to create cybersecurity requirements for the electrical grid, telecommunications networks and other critical infrastructure.
The bill also would allow the US president to take emergency actions to protect critical parts of the Internet, including ordering owners of critical infrastructure to implement emergency response plans, during a cyber-emergency. The president would need congressional approval to extend a national cyber-emergency beyond 120 days under an amendment to the legislation approved by the committee.
The legislation would give the US Department of Homeland Security authority that it does not now have to respond to cyber-attacks, Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, said earlier this month.
Other sponsors of the bill are Senators Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, and Tom Carper, a Delaware Democrat.
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4 comments:
And if a Republican were President, conservatives would be saying this is just the kind of "get tough" policy the US needs.
But since a Democrat is in office, y'all just gonna scream about grabbing your guns and revolting. While not actually doing that.
This proposal is nowhere near as unconstitutional as the various version of the PATRIOT Act are, but since a Republican was POTUS, well, conservatives were just fine with the US government eavesdropping on US citizens' communications with no warrants needed.
how's that hope and change working for you???????????
Why is it billed as the Obama Internet Kill Switch when it is being proposed by Lieberman et al? It isn't being proposed by Obama. More hype, but if it had reached this stage under Bush it would have been a necessity. < Insert Eyeroll here >
12;48 What kind of drivel is THAT??? I'm a registered Republican and I (as did many other Republicans AND Democrats) opposed the Patriot Act...but the government (Clinton, too) couldn't care less about what the people want...
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