Congressman Langevin Convenes a Cybersecurity Roundtable

Rep. Jim Langevin the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee of Threats and Capabilities held a roundtable discussion last week with the industry to discuss his bill the Executive Cyberspace Coordination Act of 2011, which he introduced on March 16.  Congressman Langevin stated that the bill would  “establish a National Office for Cyberspace to evaluate and enforce requirements for federal agencies to protect themselves and the public, make certain that the government buys the most advanced and secure technology possible, and train a workforce with the ability to defend us against attacks.”  The bill also would establish measures for protecting the power grid and critical infrastructure.

Rep. Langevin acknowledged that there were several other cybersecurity bills being introduced by his colleagues and that the House was taking a different approach from the Senate in this regard.  While the Senate is approaching cybersecurity through one major bill, that was not the approach in the House. 

One of the biggest issues in the meeting, raised by several companies, concerned supply-chain management. In short, supply chain refers for the need to protect the cybersecurity ecosystem comprised of product assembly, acquisition, data sharing, governance and the general overall security of systems and software.  U.S. companies want to make sure that legislation is not created that requires them to disclose proprietary information and trade secrets, such software code in the name of cybersecurity.   Congressman Langevin was clear that he agreed with the industry’s approach to this issue. Rep. Langevin also confirmed that Rep. Mac Thornberry will lead a bipartisan cybersecurity task force to development a comprehensive approach to cybersecurity legislation.

In the weeks ahead, we should get a better sense of whether or not cybersecurity legislation has any hopes of continuing with its current momentum to get something passed this year.  In the Senate, Sen. Reid, Rockefeller and Lieberman are showing signs that they are motivated to try and get legislation down.  So, it will depend on the House whether such urgency will be short-lived or whether meaningful legislation will get done in 2011.