In a 52-46 vote, the U.S. Senate rejected the proposed Cybersecurity Act sponsored by Senators Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine).
The bill’s apparent objective was to shore up the nation’s electrical grid, financial networks, transportation system and other critical infrastructure.
Who knows. Had such a bill been in place a few weeks ago, maybe my Netflix service wouldn’t have been interrupted, so I’d have found out sooner how the movie ended.
Seriously, the stated objective is needful. Would this bill have done the trick? Beats me. (Perhaps readers who are familiar with its details would care to click ADD COMMENT and opine.) But I do know the smell of a non-argument, like this one from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell: “We all recognize the problem, that’s really not the issue here, it’s the matter that the Majority Leader has tried to steamroll a bill.” Er, um, fine, suppose he steamrolled. That’s not the question. Does or doesn’t the bill fill the need? If it does, quit whining about tactics and pass it. If it doesn’t, explain why and come up with something better.
To be fair, Republicans and the US Chamber of Commerce argued that the bill was too stringent. Whereupon the sponsors rendered the proposed standards voluntary. Voluntary standards? I also know the smell of an oxymoron, not to mention wimpiness.
—Steve Cuno