111th Congress Fails to Enact Significant Cybersecurity Reform

The don't ask, don't tell provision wasn't the only section excised from the latest version of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2011. The provision that would have established an Office of Cyberspace in the White House, headed by a Senate-confirmed director, does not appear in H.R. 6523, the latest version of the defense bill.

In May, just before the House of Representatives approved the defense bill, Reps Diane Watson (D-CA) and James Langevin (D-RI) successfully sponsored a rider to not only create a Senate-confirmed cyberspace director in the White House but also establish a board to assure compliance with federal IT security regulations as well as require agencies to automate continuous monitoring of their IT systems and establish processes to acquire secure software. Langevin's press secretary said she doubted the lawmakers would be able to attach a similar rider to the revised bill. "While anything can happen," spokeswoman Joy Fox said , "it is our understanding that there will be no cyber amendments in any defense bill that passes this year." The exclusion of the Watson-Langevin amendment from the defense act means that Congress has failed to enact any significant cybersecurity legislation in the past two years. Several cybersecurity bills had passed the House during the current 111th Congress, but no significant IT security bill ever came up for a vote in the Senate.