Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, it is with great pleasure that I rise to offer H.R. 1259, the Computer Security Enhancement Act of 2001. This legislation represents many years of bipartisan work of the Committee on Science. Over the years, the committee has held numerous hearings on various aspects of the bill's provisions and has incorporated many constructive suggestions made by both industry and governmental agencies. This bill provides important updates to current law to ensure the Federal Government's virtual security. Fourteen years ago, this body passed the Computer Security Act of 1987, which gave authority over computer and communication security standards for Federal civilian agencies to the National Institute for Standards and Technology. Much has changed since then. In the mid-eighties, we were dealing with issues surrounding the migration from mainframes to personal computers and how to provide secure access to extremely limited, site-specific internal networks. Today, with the worldwide web, every PC on the planet represents a potential source of attack, and we need to develop new tools to protect the integrity of our Nation's computers. While no single piece of legislation can fully protect our Federal computer systems, this act is a vital step to strengthen and update the authority given the National Institute of Standards and Technology to provide guidance to our security efforts.”