Cyber Bill Relies on Voluntary Security

A cybersecurity bill likely to reach the Senate floor this week greatly scales back an earlier White House-backed proposal to require power grids, air-traffic-control systems and other critical networks to bolster their protections. The bill's sponsors said the changes were needed to win Republican support, but the measure still faces criticism from some top Republicans and groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Meanwhile, many cybersecurity advocates say it would do little to improve computer-network defenses. "It doesn't go as far as what we'd like," a senior administration official said, adding that the White House is examining options to amend it. But "we think that this bill still does enough that's good that we will probably end up supporting it," the official said.