Cybersecurity Bill Responds to Industry Cost Concerns, Sen Reid Says

Cybersecurity legislation in the Senate was designed to avoid unmanageable costs to industry and can be altered in coming weeks, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) told the US Chamber of Commerce, the nation’s largest business lobbying group.

Sen Reid responded in a letter to concerns raised by the Chamber that a planned cybersecurity bill may increase costs and place too many rules on companies. The measure may be introduced as early as this week. “You are absolutely right that a regulatory framework creating bureaucratic redundancy, over-intrusive requirements, and unmanageable costs is counterproductive and contradictory to the spirit of public-private partnership that must drive our nation’s cybersecurity efforts,” Sen Reid wrote to Chamber president Thomas Donohue. Sen Reid said many of the issues raised by the Chamber were addressed in bill revisions. He said the legislation has been “carefully crafted and narrowly tailored,” and he pledged to hold a “fair and reasonable” amendment process when the bill comes to the Senate floor.