House Dems rally against CISPA over concerns about privacy protection

A group of House Democrats circulated a letter calling on lawmakers to oppose a controversial cybersecurity bill up for a vote this week unless additional privacy protections are adopted into the measure.

Four Democratic members say the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) as written "would undermine the interests of citizens and their privacy" despite the addition of five privacy-focused amendments adopted to the bill last week. They argue that the amendments do not go far enough to ease their concerns. "Without further amendments to protect privacy and civil liberties, we cannot support the bill," the House Democratic lawmakers write in the "Dear Colleague" letter. "The bill has improved from earlier versions, but even with the amendments adopted, CISPA unacceptably and unnecessarily compromises the privacy interests of Americans online," they add.
Reps. Adam Schiff (D-CA), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Anna Eshoo (D-CA) and Rush Holt (D-NJ) signed the letter.