Lee Terry: “I thank the gentleman. Madam Chairman, I rise in support of this bill. It's a sensible bill that builds a necessary…”

“I thank the gentleman. Madam Chairman, I rise in support of this bill. It's a sensible bill that builds a necessary pillar in the cybersecurity strategy of our Nation. I've immersed myself in cybersecurity over the last couple of years. I've been on two task forces. I'm on the Energy and Commerce Committee. I've met with industry leaders in all of the critical infrastructure areas. And as I've gathered information and input, there's two principles at stake here. The common thread from all of them have said: we have to be flexible, and we have to be able to communicate. Those are the two principles on which this bill is based. Number one, flexibility. What it means is you can't lock this into a government agency because when government agencies start taking control of setting standards or working with an industry group to set standards on cybersecurity, the hackers take 5 seconds to get around that, and it will take years then for the industry to move around that. You are setting them up as ducks waiting to be shot if we do that. So we can't. We've got to give them the flexibility. The least government interference is what gives them the flexibility. The next part is communication. What I learned from the critical infrastructure industries is that what they want to know is, is there a threat out there, and what's the specifics of the threat? They know they're under attack every day.…”