Legislative Activity

Senate Adds Cyber Legislation to Agenda

The Senate appears to be willing to take up the Cyber Information Sharing Act or CISA (S. 754) by the end of June, with the Senate Whip adding the bill to the list of legislation to the agenda. After the challenges related to passage of the PATRIOT Act last week, there are a number of issues that will need to be addressed before the bill can come to the floor. While the House has already passed two information sharing bills, it is unlikely the Senate will take up the House’s measure and will instead focus on the Senate Intelligence Committee’s cyber bill. Members including Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Rand Paul (R-KY) have expressed reservations with the CISA bill as well.

In addition to the possible consideration of CISA in the coming weeks, yet another Member is expected to unveil a data breach bill. Senator Warner (D-VA) is expected to release his data-breach notification bill with a focus on a comprehensive, nationwide and uniform data-breach law that is consistently applied and enforced across industries.

Executive Branch Activity

OMB Likely to Issue Guidance on Cybersecurity Acquisition Challenges

The White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is set to issue guidance this summer aimed at spurring improvements in the federal acquisition workforce’s ability to assess cybersecurity risks. The guidance is expected to provide momentum to the General Services Administration’s (GSA) work regarding the December 2014 request for information (RFI) on industry capabilities to provide business due-diligence research about federal contractors. The RFI focused on a list of risk indicators and categories that deal with people, processes, technology and certification/conformance, which will better inform the guidance to be issued by the OMB.