Obama considering another end-run around Congress on cybersecurity executive order

The bill wouldn’t even pass the Democrat-majority led Senate, yet Obama may issue another executive order to force it anyway:

THE HILL – Senate Republicans recently blocked cybersecurity legislation, but the issue might not be dead after all.

The White House hasn’t ruled out issuing an executive order to strengthen the nation’s defenses against cyber attacks if Congress refuses to act.

“In the wake of Congressional inaction and Republican stall tactics, unfortunately, we will continue to be hamstrung by outdated and inadequate statutory authorities that the legislation would have fixed,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said in an emailed response to whether the president is considering a cybersecurity order.

“Moving forward, the President is determined to do absolutely everything we can to better protect our nation against today’s cyber threats and we will do that,” Carney said.

But Senate Republicans, led by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), worried the bill would burden businesses with unnecessary and ineffective regulations.

The bill’s sponsors watered down the regulatory provisions, replacing the security mandates with voluntary incentives, but that wasn’t enough to win over Republicans. The bill mustered 52 votes in the Senate, well short of the 60 needed to overcome a filibuster.

If Obama issues an order on cybersecurity, it wouldn’t be the first time that his administration has resorted to executive action to bypass Congress.

Obama uses the slogan “we can’t wait” to argue that some issues are too important to be allowed to stall in Congress.

If I had to guess, Obama will probably wait until after the election to create this executive order considering that internet security gets a lot of attention by a lot of people.


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