Senate bill aims to improve federal cybersecurity laws – MeriTalk

Senator Gary Peters, Democrat of Michigan, officially introduced bipartisan legislation Monday that would create an interagency commission to standardize cybersecurity regulations.

Senator Peters first irritated Last month, during a hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC), the Federal Cybersecurity Regulatory Improvement Act was introduced.

The bipartisan bill — introduced July 8 by Senator James Lankford, Republican of Oklahoma — would require the National Cyber ​​Director (NCD) to chair a harmonization commission tasked with harmonizing federal cybersecurity regulations.

The committee – made up of the heads of each regulatory agency – must publish a framework to achieve cybersecurity harmonization within a year of the bill’s enactment.

Under the Streamlining Federal Cybersecurity Regulations Act, at least three regulatory agencies will be required to conduct a pilot program to implement the harmonization framework.

The bill has been referred for consideration to the Senate HSGAC Committee, chaired by Senator Peters.

“Passing legislation is the only way forward,” Senator Peters said during a June 5 hearing. “We need to unify the independent agencies and begin to harmonize those efforts. Only Congress has the authority to do that. And if we fail to accomplish that mission, we will not be able to build the most effective response to cyber threats.”

NCD Cyber ​​Policy and Programs Assistant Nick Leiserson testified at a Senate hearing last month, praising Senators Peters and Lankford for their new bill.

“The Administration supports Chairman Peters’ legislation — consistent with views previously presented to the committee — that would enable ONCD to better accomplish our mission by including independent regulatory commissions in the policymaking process, which would act as a catalyst for the more rapid development of a cross-sector framework for harmonization and reciprocity,” Leiserson said.

The Senate committee hearing followed the White House’s decision announcement that it is building a pilot reciprocity framework to be used in the critical infrastructure sub-sector and that will provide it with “valuable insights” on how best to design a harmonised regulatory approach to cybersecurity.

However, Leiserson noted that the Streamlining Federal Cybersecurity Regulations Act is still needed because “ONCD’s authority to more broadly test harmonization and reciprocity is limited.”