National Association of Federal Credit Unions (NAFCU) Senior Vice President of Government Affairs and General Counsel Carrie Hunt issued the following statement regarding the Senate passage today of NAFCU-backed S. 754, the “Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act” (CISA), a bill that would encourage faster sharing of cyber-threat information among the business and government sectors.
“NAFCU and our members thank Sens. Burr and Feinstein for their leadership and commitment to shepherding through the Senate this critical legislation,” said Hunt. “Today’s passage is a positive step forward in safeguarding our nation’s cybersecurity. However, we urge Congress to continue its fight against cyber criminals by advancing legislation that establishes a strong, scalable, national data security standard to safeguard sensitive and personal consumer data, such as the bill proposed by Senators Tom Carper, D-Del., and Roy Blunt, R-Mo., the Data Security Act of 2015 (S. 961) and the companion bill, H.R. 2205, proposed by Reps. Randy Neugebauer, R-Texas, and John Carney, D-Del. We look forward to continuing to work with Congress to help advance the cybersecurity and data security legislation.”
Several amendments were considered in this bill, including one offered by Sen. Jeff Flake, R-AZ, that would sunset the bill after 10 years and was agreed to by unanimous consent.
NAFCU also signed on to a joint letter with three other financial trades to raise concerns about other proposed amendments, including those introduced by Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., Al Franken, D-Minn., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., regarding the definition of a cyber threat and other aspects of the bill. The trades argue that the amendments would create ambiguities and complications in the bill’s language and otherwise undermine the measure. These amendments ultimately failed.