According to The Hill, the Senate may at last have slotted together all the required pieces to hold a vote on cybersecurity legislation. If so, the bill could pass before the coming recess. Senator Lieberman told reporters that he is confident that 60 votes can be compiled, ensuring that no filibuster can derail progress. The vote should take place before the end of Friday.
However, though Sen. Lieberman is putting on a confident public face, work remains to be done. Meetings between the majority and minority party are expected to continue tomorrow morning, following sessions that took place today. Senator Kyl hedged: “The problem is on the one or two or three difficult issues, can we come to cloture on those? I don’t know if that’s going to happen, but I think it could.”
If the Senate manages to fuse together the approaches of Lieberman’s bill, and the competing SECURE IT Act into something that can accumulate a 60 vote tally, it will be a tribute to cramming. After dithering for months, the Senate has only recently manged to make any progress on passing a bill. Lieberman previously stated that if nothing passed before the end of July, cybersecurity would be a frozen issue.
Of course, even if the Senate manages to pass its bill, whether it can clear the House and receive the scribble of the President is not certain. Still, as early as tomorrow we could see what the final cybersecurity compromise that the Senate is slapping together looks like.
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And then we get to watch the response from privacy groups, corporations, and Internet activists. Prepare for another circus.
Top Image Credit: Vinoth Chandar
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