Political Quotes

“Madam Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume. The bill that we are considering today creates a voluntary information-sharing network, which could provide owners and operators of critical infrastructure with valuable threat information that would help them to secure their networks from cyberattacks. Unfortunately, the legislation specifies that it applies only to ``private sector entities and utilities.'' While ``utilities'' is defined extremely broadly in the legislation as any entity that provides ``essential services,'' including telecommunications and transportation providers, there remains the possibility that the definition may exclude pieces of our critical infrastructure that have significant cybervulnerabilities. My amendment, which I am offering with my good friend Mr. Lungren from California, strikes the uses of the word ``utilities'' and replaces it in each instance with the phrase ``critical infrastructure owners and operators.'' This is a commonsense way to avoid potential confusion and to eliminate any possibility that critical entities could be denied the opportunity to opt into this voluntary information- sharing framework and thereby share and receive the valuable classified threat information that will be available under CISPA. This amendment will not significantly expand the scope of the legislation, but instead will help prevent interpretations of language that could be contrary to the committee's intent, which I believe is the same as mine.…”