The leaders of the Senate Commerce Committee continued to spar over...

to reach a cybersecurity compromise is “very unclear” and urged President Barack Obama to issue an executive order that addresses the problem, in a letter sent Monday (http://xrl.us/bnkkey). Rockefeller offered his “strong support” for an executive order that creates voluntary cybersecurity guidelines to protect the nation’s critical infrastructure systems. The president should create a program that enhances private and public sector collaboration, conducts risk assessments of critical cyber systems, and develops “dynamic and adaptable” cybersecurity practices for the private sector, he wrote. The program should be led by the Department of Homeland Security and coordinated with the assistance of the departments of Defense, Commerce and Justice, among others, the letter said. Last week, John Brennan, assistant to the president for homeland security and counter-terrorism, suggested that the White House was considering a cybersecurity executive order (CD Aug 9 p3). Rockefeller, a sponsor of the Cybersecurity Act (S-3414), slammed the GOP-led vote against cloture of the bill (CD Aug 3 p3) and said he could not recall a circumstance in which Senate lawmakers had “obstructed genuine efforts to address a threat to our national security that is so urgent and widely recognized, where the military intelligence advice was so explicit and urgent, and where bipartisan national security consensus was so deep and broad.” Separately, Senate Commerce Ranking Member Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said she was optimistic that the Senate will be able to reach a consensus on cybersecurity legislation by Labor Day. She wrote in an op-ed published on a San Antonio news site operated by KSAT-TV12 (http://xrl.us/bnkkhg) that there is “no partisan dissent” over whether Congress needs to act to prevent cybersecurity threats, but “the question is how we act.” Hutchison, who helped author an alternative cybersecurity bill, the SECURE IT Act (S-2151), said she opposed S-3414 because it would have actually deterred cooperation between the public and private sectors, rather than encourage it. Instead she promoted S-2151 as a nimble, flexible approach to cybersecurity that has industry support and can pass the GOP-led House. “We all agree that cybersecurity is an issue of vital national importance ... I call on my friends from both sides of the aisle to come together to get it done,” she wrote.