Cory Bennett reports:
The bipartisan co-sponsors of a major cybersecurity bill reached a preliminary deal on amendments that could help speed the measure through the Senate before August recess.
Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the top two lawmakers on the Senate Intelligence Committee, are backing the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA). Their bill would boost the exchange of data on hackers between companies and the government.
Supporters, including industry groups and a bipartisan group of lawmakers, argue this exchange is necessary to better understand and thwart potential cyberattacks. But privacy advocates argue the bill simply shuttles more private data on American citizens to government intelligence agencies, empowering surveillance programs.
In response, privacy-minded senators, led by Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), have been angling to significantly alter the bill.
But Burr and Feinstein on Friday started circulating a managers’ amendment, obtained by The Hill, that would address some — but not all — of the privacy concerns that have stalled the bill since March.
Read more on The Hill.