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ABA commends House on passage of cybersecurity bills

Legislators demonstrated rare bipartisanship, approving a pair of cybersecurity bills of particular interest to the financial services sector.

July 29, 2014

On Monday, the U.S. House of Representative demonstrated rare bipartisanship with the approval of a pair of cybersecurity bills in which the financial industry has taken a particular interest.

H.R. 3696, The National Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure Protection Act amends the Homeland Security Act of 2002  to require the Secretary of Homeland Security to conduct cybersecurity activities, including the provision of shared situational awareness among federal entities to enable real-time, integrated, and operational actions to protect from, prevent, mitigate, respond to and recover from cyber incidents.

H.R. 2952, The Critical Infrastructure Research and Development Advancement Act of 2013, or the CIRDA Act, also amends the HSA Act of 2002, and is designed to speed up research and development of cybersecurity measures at the federal level. The bill requires the HSA secretary to provide Congress a strategic plan to guide federal physical security and cybersecurity technology research and development efforts for protecting critical infrastructure, and to provide updates to the plan every two years.

“The National Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure Protection Act ... will enable government and the private sector to work together to prevent and defeat cyber attacks,” said Rep. Patrick Meehan, R-Pa., who sponsored the H.R. 3696.

The American Banking Association provided a statement from Frank Keating, ABA president and CEO, on the passage of Meehan's bill:

This bill, the National Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure Protection Act, would strengthen existing mechanisms that help the financial sector identify threats, respond to cyber attacks and coordinate with our partners in the federal government. NCCIP and the other bills passed by the House today are another good step forward on the road to enactment of strong cybersecurity legislation.