Election Day on Tuesday has left command of Congress up in the air. But we can say this much: bipartisan attention to cybersecurity could drop off in the next congressional session regardless of which party controls the House and Senate when all the votes are tallied. The GOP leaders of the House and Senate homeland security panels, Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Rep. John Katko (R-N.Y.), have earned reputations as among the more moderate members in their chambers and for working with Democrats to pass cybersecurity legislation. Both are retiring, and it’s not clear if the cybersecurity policy momentum will continue. Cybersecurity is also losing another key lawmaker in Congress with the retirement of Rep. Jim Langevin (D-R.I.), a bipartisan dealmaker with longtime cyber policymaking expertise who helped some of the bigger cyber measures become law in recent years. Langevin has also helmed the cybersecurity subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee. Langevin’s subcommittee and the House and Senate homeland security panels have been at the center of most of the major cyber legislation in recent years. “It’s definitely going to hurt our proactive public policy as it relates to cyber,” Tom Kellermann, who served on an influential cybersecurity commission with Langevin and now works as senior vice president for Contrast Security, told me.
Full story : House, Senate changes could slow legislative momentum for cybersecurity.
