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[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 115 (Tuesday, July 31, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5724-S5725]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

           VETERANS JOBS CORPS ACT OF 2012--MOTION TO PROCEED

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I now move to proceed to Calendar No. 473, 
S. 3429

[[Page S5725]]

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the motion.
  The bill clerk read as follows:

       Motion to proceed to Calendar No. 473, S. 3429, a bill to 
     require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to establish a 
     veterans jobs corps, and for other purposes.

  Mr. REID. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                       Cyber Security Legislation

  Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I rise to respond to the statement of 
the majority leader--first, to say that I share his sadness and 
disappointment that he had to file a cloture motion on this 
Cybersecurity Act, but I totally agree with the decision he has made. I 
do not think he had any choice.
  I think we are facing on the one hand an urgent, real, and growing 
threat to our security and our prosperity because we are vulnerable; 
that is, the privately owned cyber infrastructure of our country is 
vulnerable to attack from foreign enemies, from nonstate actors such as 
terrorist groups, from organized criminal gangs who are just out to 
steal billions of dollars over the Internet, and from hackers.
  So we are dealing with a real problem that all the nonpolitical 
security experts from the last administration, the Bush administration, 
and this one, the Obama administration, say is rising rapidly to being 
the No. 1 threat to American security. Over the Internet now, because 
of our vulnerability over cyber space, a foreign enemy can do us more 
damage than the terrorists did to us on 9/11. It is that stark. So that 
is one reality.
  The other reality is that Senator Collins and I, Senator Rockefeller 
and Senator Feinstein, have been working literally for years. As 
Senator Reid said, because of the urgency of the problem, we decided we 
cannot just fight for 100 percent of what we thought was best to 
protect our security. We pulled back; we made it not mandatory. We have 
standards being set for the private sector to defend itself and us 
better, and we are creating carrots and not sticks to encourage them to 
opt into those cyber security standards. That is one reality.
  The other reality is that in our government--notwithstanding 
controversy here--all the Departments are working like a team. As 
General Alexander, the head of Cyber Command at the Department of 
Defense says, cyber security is a team sport--the Department of 
Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, the FBI, the intelligence 
community all working together to protect our country. But they do not 
have the tools they need, and they urgently need this bill.
  Yet the other reality is, in the Senate, where once again we are 
gridlocked, we cannot even get the consent necessary to take up 
amendments to vote on. Senator Collins and I have said all along: Just 
get this bill to the floor. Let the Chamber, the 100 Senators, work 
their will on germane and relevant amendments, and something good will 
result for the country. So here is the bill on the Senate floor, and 
yet Members are blocking us from taking up those amendments. And I am 
afraid the consequence is that they are running out the clock.
  A lot of good work done by those of us who have sponsored the pending 
legislation, in a very constructive, bipartisan group, led by Senator 
Kyl and Senator Whitehouse--including three additional members of the 
Democratic Caucus and Republican Caucus--have worked very hard to 
bridge the gaps. We have come closer together, but we are not going to 
work this out unless we can vote.
  I wish we had not come to this point, but Senator Reid has made the 
correct and necessary decision, and it will confront the Members of the 
Senate on Thursday with a decision: Are you going to vote for cloture 
to at least allow the Chamber to consider all the amendments on this 
bill that are germane and relevant or are you going to say: No, I will 
only settle for exactly what I want, and I do not want this bill; 
therefore, I am going to vote against cloture and run the risk--which 
all the independent cyber security experts in our Nation tell us we 
will run if we do not do anything--that we will suffer a major attack 
or at least we will continue to suffer major cyber theft.
  So I am saddened. We have worked very hard on this. But that is not 
the point. The point is, there is an urgent necessity to pass this 
legislation. It ought to be nonpartisan. It ought not to be the victim 
of special interest pleading. It ought to be all of us coming together, 
as we usually have on national security matters, to put the national 
security interests of the American people ahead of special interests, 
to resolve our differences, to settle for less than 100 percent, and to 
get something done to protect our country or is this going to be 
another case where the Senate fails to bridge the gaps, fails to be 
willing to make principled compromises and therefore fails not only to 
fix a problem but, in this case, to protect our country from a very 
clear and present danger of cyber attack and cyber theft?
  So Thursday will be the day of decision. I hope perhaps meetings can 
occur tomorrow in which we can reconcile our differences and agree on a 
method to go forward. If not, every Member of the Senate is going to 
have to decide whether they want to block action on cyber security 
legislation or whether they want to go forward and consider the 
amendments on both sides that have been filed.
  I thank the Presiding Officer and yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Udall of Colorado.) Without objection, it 
is so ordered.
  Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, it strikes me, as I call you, Mr. 
President, that I once had the high honor to support a man who shared 
your name, indeed your father, for President of the United States. So 
it is nice to be able to call you Mr. President.

                          ____________________
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