Dan Coats: “Well, since the Department of Defense is one of those agencies being attacked, I would certainly think this is the…”

“Well, since the Department of Defense is one of those agencies being attacked, I would certainly think this is the appropriate attachment to a bill for which, hopefully, we will be given the opportunity by our friends across the aisle. Hopefully, we will be able to pass it in the Senate, move it on to the House, and get it to the President so that these authorities can be in place. The Senator mentioned 4 million. A company whose headquarters is in the State of Indiana, Anthem insurance company, was breached--and this is public information--of 80 million people on their roles. That is almost one-third of all Americans who have had their private information breached by a cyber attack--not to mention the threat that comes from cyber attack on our critical infrastructure. What if they take down the financial system of one of our major banks or several banks? What if they take down the financial transactions that they place on Wall Street every day? What if they shut down an electric power grid in the middle of February when the temperatures in the Northeast are in minus-Fahrenheit temperatures or when it is 110 degrees in Phoenix and you lose your power and can't turn on air conditioning? People will die. People will be severely impacted by this. To not go forward and give authorization to use the tools to try to better protect American safety is not only unreasonable but is a very serious thing. Mr. McCAIN.…”