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Floor Speech
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Mr. PETERS. Mr. President, yesterday, I came to the floor to warn that a critical cyber security protection that has been in place for a decade was set to run out and expire at the end of the fiscal year. I urged my colleagues to pass a bipartisan, clean, 10-year extension to keep these important national security protections in place.
Unfortunately, one of my colleagues--just one of my colleagues-- objected, and as of midnight, they have now expired. As a result, we are without this critical line of defense. Our economy, our infrastructure, and our government are exposed.
It is now going to be a more challenging effort to protect businesses and critical infrastructure against cyber attacks at a time, Mr. President, when you know that our adversaries' attacks continue to grow more aggressive and more sophisticated.
This law was passed with strong bipartisan support, and the support remains strong in both Chambers. Even the Trump administration agrees. The White House and the Department of Homeland Security support a 10- year extension and want to see this bill passed.
For months, my colleagues and I have heard from a broad coalition of industry leaders who need the long-term certainty that a 10-year reauthorization provides so we can protect our systems and they can protect their systems and customers. That is why Senator Rounds and I introduced a clean, bipartisan, 10-year extension all the way back in April.
Every hour--every hour--we delay is an open invitation to cyber criminals and hostile actors to attack our economy and our critical infrastructure.
I would urge my colleagues to put our national and economic security first and pass this clean, long-term extension.
1377 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration; that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.
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Mr. PETERS. Mr. President, the CR has not passed. We are now vulnerable--right now. As my colleague from Oklahoma knows, we are now vulnerable.
I do not know when that continuing resolution will pass. Every day that goes by, we are susceptible to a cyber attack. Who is going to answer for that when it occurs because we did not act here?
We also know that even if the CR were to pass, it is a couple of months. We need to have long-term certainty. That is what we have been hearing from all of the folks in the cyber security industry. That is why the Trump administration is saying we need to pass a 10-year extension, and we need to do it now. It is why Members in the House, both Democrats and Republicans--there is overwhelming support there. There is overwhelming support in this Chamber right now. I assume that if we had a vote today, it would be overwhelmingly passed.
Why do we risk the security of our country from cyber attacks? Why don't we pass commonsense legislation? That is what this Senate should do.
I know we have issues that we debate all the time, but when there is overwhelming support and the threats to our country are imminent, we should act. And when we don't act, we fail the American people.
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