Lawmakers frustrated by Internet "kill switch" reports

Lawmakers seeking to craft a comprehensive cybersecurity bill are growing increasingly frustrated with characterizations of their legislative efforts as providing the president with a "kill switch" for the Internet.

The Senate Homeland Security Committee approved a comprehensive cybersecurity bill in June, only to have it repeatedly criticized in the media as providing the president with the authority to shut down portions of the Internet in the event of an emergency. At the time, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), one of the bill's sponsors, said she was frustrated by what she views as a mischaracterization of the bill. At the heart of the issue is whether the president already has the authority to intervene in private-sector networks in the event of such an emergency. Sen Collins and other supporters of the bill contend the president has had that authority for some time under a little-known provision of the Communications Act passed one month after the December 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.