The House of Representatives have passed Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act on Thursday by a heavy margin of 288 to 127 after two days of intensive debate on whether the threat of “cyberattacks” was grave enough to justify the over-lingering privacy concerns. The bill which was moved to the House after a closed-door 18 to 2 vote, received support from 92 Democrats and will now move to the Senate and then to the president Obama, whose advisers recently threatened a veto of the bill as it overrides the digital privacy of American Citizens.
“In the case of Boston they were real bombs, in this case they’re digital bombs. And these digital bombs are on their way.”- said Rep. Mike McCaul (R-TX), a vehement CISPA supporter to hard-press the need of passing it.
“We have a constitutional obligation to defend this nation.This is the answer to empower cyber information sharing to protect this nation, to allow those companies to protect themselves and move on to economic prosperity. If you want to take a shot across China’s bow, this is the answer. ” said Mr. Mike Rogers on the House floor. Rogers, the Chairman of Intelligence committee and a Republican from Michigan is co-author of CISPA.
FINAL VOTE RESULTS FOR ROLL CALL 117On the other hand, Nancy Pelosi, the House Minority leader, said “I’m disappointed that we did not address some of the concerns mentioned by the White House about personal information. Unfortunately, it offers no policies and did not allow any amendments or real solution that upholds Americans’ right to privacy.”
“It would have been so easy to fix this bill and require sites to strip out personal information before passing them to the government,” said Mr. Holmes Wilson, co-founder, Fight For the Future, promising that he will continue to lobby against the bill.
“Right now if the government wants users’ information, the company can say no because it opens them up to being sued. If CISPA passes, there will be no legal restraint,” added Mr. Wilson, commenting on tech-giants like IBM who have voiced their support for CISPA.
What Now?
The bill now moves to Democratic-controlled Senate who thrashed it last year. In case they do the same now and choose to make any changes to current state the bill; it will return back to the house after which both the chambers must then agree on a final version in a conference. And if they do agree, the bill moves to President Obama’s Desk, whose administration recently threatened to veto it. It remains to be seen whether the amendments made after the said threat satisfy the administration’s concerns of privacy.
For those who wish to know their representatives’ votes, here is a complete list:
| Aderholt Alexander Amodei Bachus Barber Barletta Barr Barrow (GA) Barton Beatty Benishek Bera (CA) Bilirakis Bishop (GA) Bishop (NY) Black Bonner Boustany Brady (TX) Brooks (AL) Brooks (IN) Brown (FL) Brownley (CA) Buchanan Bucshon Burgess Bustos Butterfield Calvert Camp Campbell Cantor Capito Cárdenas Carney Carter Cassidy Castor (FL) Chabot Chaffetz Clarke Clay Cleaver Clyburn Coble Coffman Cole Collins (GA) Collins (NY) Conaway Connolly Cook Cooper Costa Cotton Cramer Crawford Crenshaw Cuellar Culberson Daines Denham Dent DesJarlais Deutch Diaz-Balart Dingell Duckworth Duffy Duncan (TN) Ellmers Enyart Farenthold Fincher Fitzpatrick Fleischmann Flores Forbes Fortenberry Foster Foxx Frankel (FL) Franks (AZ) Frelinghuysen Fudge Gallego Garamendi Garcia Gardner Gerlach Gibbs Gingrey (GA) Goodlatte Gowdy Granger Graves (GA) |
Graves (MO) Green, Al Green, Gene Griffin (AR) Griffith (VA) Grimm Guthrie Gutierrez Hanabusa Hanna Harper Harris Hartzler Hastings (FL) Hastings (WA) Heck (NV) Heck (WA) Hensarling Higgins Himes Horsford Hoyer Hudson Huizenga (MI) Hultgren Hunter Hurt Israel Issa Jeffries Jenkins Johnson (OH) Johnson, E. B. Johnson, Sam Jordan Joyce Kaptur Kelly (IL) Kelly (PA) Kilmer Kind King (IA) King (NY) Kinzinger (IL) Kirkpatrick Kline Kuster LaMalfa Lamborn Lance Langevin Lankford Larsen (WA) Latham Latta Lipinski LoBiondo Long Lucas Luetkemeyer Lujan Grisham (NM) Luján, Ben Ray (NM) Lummis Maffei Maloney, Sean Marino Matheson McCarthy (CA) McCarthy (NY) McCaul McHenry McIntyre McKeon McKinley McMorris Rodgers Meehan Meeks Meng Messer Mica Miller (FL) Miller (MI) Moran Mullin Mulvaney Murphy (FL) Murphy (PA) Neugebauer Noem Nunes Nunnelee Olson Owens Palazzo Pastor (AZ) Paulsen |
Payne Pearce Perlmutter Perry Peters (CA) Peterson Petri Pittenger Pitts Poe (TX) Pompeo Price (GA) Quigley Radel Rahall Rangel Reed Reichert Renacci Ribble Rice (SC) Richmond Roby Roe (TN) Rogers (AL) Rogers (KY) Rogers (MI) Rokita Rooney Ros-Lehtinen Roskam Ross Rothfus Royce Ruiz Runyan Ruppersberger Ryan (WI) Salmon Sanchez, Loretta Scalise Schneider Schock Schrader Schwartz Schweikert Scott, Austin Scott, David Sessions Sewell (AL) Shuster Simpson Sinema Sires Smith (NE) Smith (NJ) Smith (TX) Smith (WA) Southerland Stewart Stivers Stutzman Swalwell (CA) Terry Thompson (CA) Thompson (MS) Thompson (PA) Thornberry Tiberi Tipton Titus Turner Upton Valadao Vargas Veasey Vela Wagner Walberg Walden Walorski Weber (TX) Webster (FL) Wenstrup Westmoreland Whitfield Williams Wilson (SC) Wittman Wolf Womack Woodall Yoder Young (AK) Young (FL) Young (IN) |
| Amash Andrews Bass Becerra Bentivolio Bishop (UT) Blumenauer Bonamici Brady (PA) Braley (IA) Bridenstine Broun (GA) Capps Carson (IN) Cartwright Castro (TX) Chu Cicilline Cohen Conyers Courtney Crowley Cummings Davis (CA) Davis, Danny Davis, Rodney DeFazio DeGette Delaney DeLauro DelBene DeSantis Doggett Doyle Duncan (SC) Edwards Ellison Engel Eshoo Esty Farr Fattah Fleming |
Gabbard Garrett Gibson Gohmert Gosar Grayson Grijalva Hahn Hall Herrera Beutler Hinojosa Holt Honda Huelskamp Huffman Jackson Lee Johnson (GA) Jones Kildee Kingston Labrador Larson (CT) Lee (CA) Levin Lewis Loebsack Lofgren Lowenthal Lowey Maloney, Carolyn Marchant Massie Matsui McClintock McCollum McDermott McNerney Meadows Michaud Miller, George Moore Nadler Napolitano |
Negrete McLeod Nolan O’Rourke Pallone Pascrell Pelosi Peters (MI) Pingree (ME) Pocan Polis Posey Price (NC) Rigell Rohrabacher Roybal-Allard Rush Ryan (OH) Sánchez, Linda T. Sarbanes Schakowsky Schiff Scott (VA) Sensenbrenner Serrano Sherman Slaughter Speier Stockman Takano Tonko Van Hollen Visclosky Walz Wasserman Schultz Waters Watt Waxman Welch Wilson (FL) Yarmuth Yoho |
| Bachmann Blackburn Capuano Holding Keating Kennedy |
Lynch Markey McGovern Miller, Gary Neal Nugent |
Shea-Porter Shimkus Tierney Tsongas Velázquez |
