Federal cybersecurity authority awaits break in Senate logjam

One of President Obama's first priorities upon taking office was a comprehensive review, then considered urgent, of federal policies for maintaining Internet security. The report on that review, released last May, recommended further empowering the role of what was then being called the "cybersecurity czar," including the delegation of authority to lead emergency responses in case of an attack on Internet resources that threatened the national security.

Inactivity in enacting those recommendations was blamed for the resignation of Mr. Obama's first czar, Melissa Hathaway, last August. In December, a former security advisor to Pres. George W. Bush, Howard Schmidt, was confirmed to fill Hathaway's post.

That's assuming the post actually means anything or has any authority whatsoever. Last February 4, the House voted overwhelmingly 422 - 5 to pass its version of the cybersecurity act that would give Schmidt the authority recommended in the review that Hathaway led.

But this morning, the Congressional news service The Hill reports, the Senate's version of the same bill -- despite bipartisan sponsorship from Sen. John Rockefeller (D - W.V.) and Sen. Olympia Snowe (R - Maine) -- now appears on a list of 290 House-originated bills stalled in the Senate.

The reason: An ongoing showdown over health care legislation has apparently created a situation not only where Senate Republicans are unwilling to publicly show support for any administration-backed proposal, or even judicial nomination, but also where Senate Democrats are unwilling to show signs of compromise for fear of empowering the opposition.

Now, The Hill cites House Democratic leaders as blaming Senate Democratic leaders for the logjam. For instance, House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D - S.C.) likened Senate leadership (indirectly including Harry Reid (D - Nevada), the Senate Majority Leader), fairly or unfairly, to the British House of Lords -- a legislative body that is perennially seen as out of touch with the common person.

Signs of a possible thaw came yesterday as the Senate voted 62-30 in favor of legislation for creating and protecting jobs, believed to have been the President's #2 legislative priority this year. Voting in favor, ironically, was newly minted Sen. Scott Brown (R - Mass.), the man who campaigned for Ted Kennedy's old seat by declaring himself "#41" -- the one Republican vote necessary to stop cloture votes and maintain debate indefinitely.

Still, whether an authoritative federal agency in charge of cybersecurity -- a concept not only currently supported by House Republicans, but even created by some of them during their leadership of that body years ago -- can be established this year may depend on how the Senate handles the proceedings in the publicly televised health care reform debate, currently slated to begin Thursday.

In the meantime, it has been left to the Federal Trade Commission to send letters to several dozen organizations this month, the FTC announced yesterday, that their private documents were discovered in an investigation of files publicly shared through P2P file trading networks. The names of organizations contacted have not been released, however, the FTC says that private entities, including local governments, were among those notified. Normally, the FTC -- the "T" in whose name stands for "Trade" -- would not be notifying a school or municipal authority about its public conduct; and in fact, the FTC may have no authority in enforcing any of the recommendations it gave to non-private entities.

A sample of the version of the letter the Commission sent to schools and public agencies (PDF available here) reads in part, "The FTC recommends that you identify the students, employees, and others whose information has been exposed by taking appropriate steps to determine which of your files have been shared to P2P networks. You should also consider whether to notify them -- and any law enforcement agencies and credit bureaus -- about the exposure."