WASHINGTON, D.C. — Senator Steve Daines today expressed his disappointment after the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) passed the United States Senate and reaffirmed his concerns that the legislation failed to sufficiently protect Americans’ privacy and civil liberties:
“I have serious concerns that this legislation fails to fully protect Montanans’ right to privacy from government overreach. As someone who spent nearly 13 years in the technology sector, I know firsthand the cybersecurity risks facing Montanans and agree that we must adopt real reforms that better protect Americans from these threats. But these reforms must not come at the expense of Montanans’ personal privacy and civil liberties.
“In light of recent and massive breaches of the federal government’s cybersecurity, it is obvious the federal government is woefully unable to protect even more Americans’ data. By becoming a storage hub of consumer and individual data under this legislation, the federal government will become extremely vulnerable to new cyber attacks. I will continue fighting for real solutions that protect Americans from growing cyber threats, while also upholding our Constitutional rights and civil liberties.”
Daines supported several bipartisan amendments to CISA that would have implemented much-needed privacy safeguards. All failed to be included in the final piece of legislation:
- Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) amendment: would ensure CISA does not supersede existing privacy agreements with consumers.
- Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) amendment: would require the government and companies to remove all personally identifiable information from shared cyber threat indicators, unless it is necessary to identify a cybersecurity threat.
- Senator Al Franken (D-MN) amendment: limits the types of information that may be shared.
- Senator Dean Heller (R-NV) amendment: requires the government to remove additional personally identifiable information before sharing cyber threat indicators.
Daines has long worked to protect Americans’ civil liberties and Fourth Amendment rights. Daines is an original cosponsor of the USA Freedom Act of 2015, bipartisan legislation that ends the bulk collection of Americans’ phone records.
In the House, Daines was a vocal critic of the National Security Agency’s (NSA) bulk meta-data collection and was a supporter of the original USA Freedom Act that would have ended the NSA’s abuses and overreach.
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