White House, industry to push Congress on computer security

The Clinton administration and industry officials will push Congress this fall to provide more funding for protection of computer security initiatives, saying current legislation falls short of providing the necessary resources.

The issue was among the concerns raised at the second meeting last month of the Partnership for Critical Infrastructure Security (PCIS), an industry-led effort aimed at encouraging better cooperation across the key critical infrastructure industry sectors.

In an interview, John Tritak, director of the Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office (CIAO), and Commerce Undersecretary for Export Administration William Reinsch, whose agency oversees CIAO, pointed to several problems beyond just the funding in the House and Senate versions of the Commerce, Justice and State departments' spending bills.

"We're very disappointed," Reinsch said. "The House bill essentially under funds everyone. ... The Senate bill is more particular ... They zeroed out most of the new initiatives."

Both Tritak and Reinsch said Senate appropriators appear to be taking a narrow view of infrastructure protection generally focused only on the national security agencies' role in the issue. The President's approach, however, has been to "try to tap into competencies of the different agencies" across the federal government, Tritak said.

A spokesman for Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee's commerce panel, did not have an immediate response.

Officials expressed concern that the Senate bill provides little funding for the Commerce Department's role in infrastructure protection, citing in particular the lack of funding for initiatives such as creation of the Institute for Information Infrastructure Protection at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. In a committee report on the bill, Senate appropriators said the institute has been not properly coordinated.

Reinsch said he is confident the administration will fight to boost funding for critical infrastructure funding during negotiations over fiscal 2001 spending legislation this fall.

"I talked to OMB about this," Reinsch said. "This is a presidential priority. They are prepared to press very hard on this."

At the recent PCIS meeting in San Francisco, industry representatives outlined a half dozen priorities, according to Steve Jordan, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's director of special programs for international economic and national security affairs.

Among their top priorities for the fall will be persuading Congress to increase funding for CIAO, which was funded far below the administration's request in the House bill, and other infrastructure protection measures, Jordan said. Industry also is concerned about the future of CIAO, which was established to work with federal agencies to identify their dependence on critical infrastructures and is set to sunset next year.

The group also will focus on trying to gain passage of legislation, H.R. 4246, that would provide industry with a limited exemption from the Freedom of Information Act to encourage them to share information about cyber security with the federal government.