On the recordJuly 25, 2012
I thank my dear friend, the ranking member on the Homeland Security Committee, for her excellent and thoughtful statement. I thank Senator Rockefeller, the chair of the Commerce Committee, for his compelling statement on behalf of proceeding and, of course, on behalf of the underlying bill. I think these two statements set the table for the debate that will follow in the next several days. Within the next day or two, certainly no later than Friday, we will vote on the motion to proceed to the Cybersecurity Act of 2012. I appeal to our colleagues to come together across party lines and vote to proceed, as a way of saying that we recognize exactly what Senator Rockefeller and Senator Collins have said: We have a problem here. We are vulnerable to cyber attack. It is not just speculative. We are being attacked. We are being robbed every day through cyberspace. And we are not adequately defended. It is as simple as that. Part of the problem, as my colleagues have said, in the challenge is that 80 to 85 percent of our critical infrastructure in this country is privately owned. That is the American way. That is the way it ought to be.…





