House weighs changes to cybersecurity bill after veto threat

The House Rules Committee is expected to decide which amendments the full House will vote on when it takes up the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) later this week.

The Rules Committee will consider a host of possible changes, including three amendments from Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), the ranking member on the Homeland Security Committee, that would bulk up the bill's privacy protections and aim to protect critical infrastructure systems, such as electrical grids and chemical plants, from cyberattacks. The Rules Committee is expected to move amendments backed by the bill's sponsors, Reps. Mike Rogers (R-MI) and Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD), that would tweak the bill's privacy protections. Their amendments would narrow the bill's definition of "cyber threat information" and would tighten limitations on how the government could use the information it collects. The Rules Committee will likely only approve a few of the amendments for consideration by the full House.