Richard Burr

Mr. BURR

Mr. BURR. Madam President, let me say to my colleagues, again, we are trying to change the words that have been very delicately chosen to provide the certainty that companies understand and need for them to make a decision to share. Like some other amendments, if you don't want them to share, then provide uncertainty. That is in language changing from ``may'' to ``reasonably likely,'' changing from ``actual'' or ``potential'' to ``harm caused by an incident.'' The Department of Homeland Security is for this bill. The White House is for this bill. Fifty-two organizations representing thousands of companies in America are for this bill. We have reached the right balance. Let's defeat this amendment and let's move to this afternoon's amendments. I yield the floor.

Mr. BURR

Mr. BURR. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. BURR. I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. BURR. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the cloture motion on S. 754 be withdrawn; that prior to the vote on adoption of the Burr-Feinstein substitute amendment, the managers' amendment at the desk be agreed to; and that following adoption of the substitute, the bill be read a third time and the Senate vote on passage of the bill, as under the previous order. I further ask that notwithstanding adoption, the Flake amendment No. 2582 be modified with the technical change at the desk.

Mr. BURR. Madam President, we are almost at the end. This is the last amendment. Unfortunately, I rise to ask my colleagues to vote against the amendment of not only my colleague but a member of the Intelligence Committee. This is a deal-killer. I will be very honest. This kills the deal. One of the thresholds that we had to reach was the balance to have one portal that the information goes through. This creates a new portal. The White House is not in favor of it. Downtown is not in favor of it because they understand what it does. We are this close right now to a voluntary information sharing bill. I can assure you that this is the first step. We have a ways to go. But if you want to stop it dead in its tracks, support this amendment. If, in fact, you want to get this across the goal line, then I would ask you to defeat the Cotton amendment and let us move to passage of this bill. Let us go to conference with the House. I yield the floor.

Mr. BURR. I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. BURR. Madam President, I ask my colleagues for just the next 2 minutes to allow Senator Feinstein and me to thank our colleagues for their help over the last several days as we have worked through the cyber bill. I thank my vice chairman, who has been beside me all the way, and I thank Chairman Johnson and Ranking Member Carper for the input they provided. I want to say to committee staff who has worked night and day to get us to this point and to members of the committee who worked diligently for months to get this legislation enacted that I could not have done it without you. Now the work begins as we go to conference. I turn to the vice chairman.

Mr. BURR

Mr. BURR. Mr. President, I think everybody would like to vote, but I will say one last thing to my colleagues. Any company in America--any company in America--that chooses not to participate, doesn't have to. If for some reason they find there is something in this piece of legislation they are uncomfortable with or they are concerned about with regard to the transfer of any personal data, it is very simple: They do not have to participate. But to deny everybody who would like to participate is wrong. I would encourage my colleagues to defeat the amendment and support moving on. I yield the floor.

Mr. BURR. I yield the floor.

Mr. BURR. Mr. President, I thank my colleague from Nevada and say to him generally that we tried to put everything in the managers' amendment that we could, and the threshold was that we had to have total agreement. I know my colleague understands that it is difficult, but we have done everything we can to protect the rights of every individual Member to bring an amendment to the floor, to debate the amendment, and to have an up-or-down vote--even for the ones that were not germane. It is unfortunate that one amendment on both sides will be kicked out because they have to happen before the cloture vote, and that was not allowed to take place. Measure Placed on the Calendar--S. 2193 Mr. President, I understand that there is a bill at the desk that is due for its second reading.

Mr. BURR. Mr. President, in order to place the bill on the calendar under the provisions of rule XIV, I object to further proceedings.

Mr. BURR. Mr. President, in just shy of 25 minutes, the Senate will have a procedural vote on the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015. The committee worked diligently for most of this year in a bipartisan way to achieve a balance of great policy and reported that bill out on a 14-to-1 vote. I say to my colleagues: We have reached a very delicate balance. There have been bending and twisting and giving and taking, and we have done it not only within the Senate of the United States and within the committee, we have done it with stakeholders all around the country. I will remind my colleagues that this bill we are attempting to get through the Senate is a voluntary information sharing bill, and the mere fact that it is voluntary means we have to have in place certain incentives that provide a reason for companies to participate. I commend Chairman Johnson and Ranking Member Carper. Their committee and staff have worked with us side by side to try to incorporate their thoughts and the thoughts of all the agencies and also worked with stakeholders around the country. I am pleased to tell my colleagues today that we received this morning a notice from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and it says: ``The Chamber urges the United States Senate to pass CISA expeditiously. There is overwhelming support.'' When the vice chair and I ventured into this, we also made a commitment to lock arms because we thought we found the right balance. Although it may be enticing for Members to support amendments that might come up, there is a reason we didn't incorporate them in the managers' amendment. It may have been due to the differences the vice chair and I had or maybe it was because it would have killed the support we had with the stakeholders around the country. We will have one of those amendments today, and it is going to be inviting for people to do it, but let me say to my colleagues, if do you it, information sharing is over with, and the effort is dead. It has been tried for 3 years, yet we continue to see attacks happen, and massive amounts of personal data go out of the system to be used for criminal or espionage reasons. This is really our last chance. The vice chairman and I have reached what we think is the absolute balance that provides the buy-in of those who will be asked to voluntarily turn over this data and to help minimize the loss of data in our entire economy. I urge my colleagues to support the cloture motion that will happen at 11 a.m. We will have a short debate, and then we will take up an amendment, and the vice chair and I at that time will ask our colleagues not to support that amendment. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to waive the mandatory quorum calls with respect to the cloture motions on amendment No. 2716 and S. 754.

Mr. BURR. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent for 2 additional minutes before we move to the cloture vote.

Mr. BURR. Mr. President, let me modify my request. I ask unanimous consent for 2 additional minutes on both sides.

Mr. BURR. May I modify my request further? My unanimous consent would grant me 2 additional minutes and would grant the vice chair 2 minutes 45 seconds.

Mr. BURR. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that each side be given 2 additional minutes.

Mr. BURR. Mr. President, I thank my colleagues for allowing me the time. Very quickly, it was said that this bill will not prevent and would not have prevented the attacks that took place at American companies. It is, in fact, right. The vice chair and I have never portrayed that this was a prevention bill. We said it is not a prevention bill. It is a bill designed to share information to minimize the loss of data. As it relates to personal data, my colleague from Oregon forgets that the managers' amendment strengthens by making sure on the government side that they only draw in the fields that the entire government collaborative group agrees need to be used for forensic purposes over and above what Senator Carper pointed out are the responsibilities of the private sector companies. It was said that the vice chair and I have been critical of technology companies that oppose this bill. I don't think we have been critical. We have been confused--confused that the companies that hold the most personal data on the American people in the country want to deprive every other business in America from having the ability to share their information when they are hacked. So I am not critical. I am challenged to figure out why they would take that position, but I have come to the conclusion that there are some questions in life that have no answers, and I have now reached one of those. Given that we are at the end of this debate, let me once again thank Chairman Johnson and Ranking Member Carper for the unbelievable contribution that both of them individually made in their committee, and on behalf of the vice chair and myself, I would urge our colleagues to support cloture and allow this process to move forward so we could conference with the House. I yield the floor.

Mr. BURR. Mr. President, I wish to say to my colleagues that there is 10 minutes of debate in between these votes, so those Members who have conversations, I wish they would take them off the floor. If they are not going to have conversations, stay and listen to the debate. Mr. President, from the floor, I have said to my colleagues that the information sharing bill is a very delicately balanced piece of legislation. What we have attempted to do is to create a voluntary program that companies around this country can choose to participate in or not. Some have already expressed their opposition to it, and I would say that is very easy--pass the bill, and they just won't participate. There are going to be amendments, though, that change the balance. I don't want to get into the details of every amendment. Let me just say to my colleagues that if we change the balance we have reached not just on both sides of the aisle but with the comfort level of businesses across this country to where they believe they can no longer participate in it, then we won't have a successful information sharing bill. I think every Member of this body and every American knows that cyber attacks are not going to go away. They are going to continue, they are going to become more numerous, and we are going to be on the floor debating something that is probably much more specific in the future. I wish we could prevent it, but right now our only tool is legislation that voluntarily asks companies to participate to minimize the loss of data. I encourage my colleagues, as the vice chair and I have--we are going to oppose all the amendments that come up. We have gone through all the amendments, and those which we could accept and which we felt embraced the balance we had achieved and could still hold together the support across the country--we incorporated those in the managers' amendment, and that managers' amendment will be voted on when we come back on Monday or Tuesday. With that, I yield the floor to my vice chair.

Mr. BURR

Mr. BURR. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. BURR

Mr. BURR. May I thank my colleague?

Mr. BURR. Mr. President, I thank my colleague. I think he diplomatically referred to me as old, but I know that wasn't the case. He is exactly right. We have served together for a long time. We agree on most issues. This is one that we disagree on, but we do it in a genuine and diplomatic way. Contrary to maybe the image that some portray to the American people, we fight during the day and we can have a drink or go to dinner at night, and we are just as likely to work on a piece of legislation together next week. So that is what this institution is and it is why it is so great.

Mr. BURR. I object.

Mr. BURR

Mr. BURR. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that if cloture is invoked on the Burr-Feinstein substitute amendment to S. 754, the Senate then vote in relation to the Paul amendment No. 2564, as modified, with 10 minutes divided in the usual form prior to the vote.

Mr. BURR. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I believe the amendment number is 2717.

Mr. BURR. I object, Mr. President.