[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 21 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

113th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 21

     To secure the United States against cyber attack, to improve 
  communication and collaboration between the private sector and the 
Federal Government, to enhance American competitiveness and create jobs 
 in the information technology industry, and to protect the identities 
     and sensitive information of American citizens and businesses.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

             January 22 (legislative day, January 3), 2013

 Mr. Rockefeller (for himself, Mr. Carper, Mrs. Feinstein, Mr. Levin, 
 Ms. Mikulski, Mr. Whitehouse, and Mr. Coons) introduced the following 
 bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland 
                   Security and Governmental Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
     To secure the United States against cyber attack, to improve 
  communication and collaboration between the private sector and the 
Federal Government, to enhance American competitiveness and create jobs 
 in the information technology industry, and to protect the identities 
     and sensitive information of American citizens and businesses.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Cybersecurity and American Cyber 
Competitiveness Act of 2013''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) The country's leading officials in business, 
        intelligence, and defense affairs agree that malicious state, 
        terrorist, and criminal actors exploiting vulnerabilities in 
        information and communications networks and gaps in 
        cybersecurity pose one of the most serious and rapidly growing 
        threats to both the national security and the economy of the 
        United States.
            (2) With information technology now the backbone of the 
        United States economy, a critical element of United States 
        national security infrastructure and defense systems, the 
        primary foundation of global communications, and a key enabler 
        of most critical infrastructure, nearly every single United 
        States citizen is touched by cyberspace and is threatened by 
        cyber attacks.
            (3) Malicious actors in cyberspace have already caused 
        significant damage to the United States Government, the United 
        States economy, and United States citizens, and the threat 
        continues to grow.
            (4) In its 2009 Cyberspace Policy Review, the White House 
        concluded, ``Ensuring that cyberspace is sufficiently resilient 
        and trustworthy to support U.S. goals of economic growth, civil 
        liberties and privacy protections, national security, and the 
        continued advancement of democratic institutions requires 
        making cybersecurity a national priority.''.
            (5) Leading experts in the private sector and the 
        government agree that the United States should establish a new 
        model of public-private collaboration, which fits the realities 
        of the 21st century, to secure the country against cyber 
        attack.

SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

    It is the sense of Congress that Congress should enact, and the 
President should sign, bipartisan legislation to improve communication 
and collaboration between the private sector and the Federal Government 
to secure the United States against cyber attack, to enhance the 
competitiveness of the United States and create jobs in the information 
technology industry, and to protect the identities and sensitive 
information of United States citizens and businesses by--
            (1) enhancing the security and resiliency of public and 
        private communications and information networks against cyber 
        attack by nation-states, terrorists, and cyber criminals;
            (2) establishing mechanisms for sharing cyber threat and 
        vulnerability information between the government and the 
        private sector;
            (3) developing a coherent public-private system to improve 
        the capability of the United States to assess cyber risk and 
        prevent, detect, and robustly respond to cyber attacks against 
        United States critical infrastructure, such as the electric 
        grid, the financial sector, and telecommunications networks;
            (4) promoting research and development investments in the 
        United States information technology sector that create and 
        maintain good, well-paying jobs in the United States and help 
        to enhance the economic competitiveness and cybersecurity of 
        the United States;
            (5) promoting cybersecurity and information technology 
        training to develop the country's next generation of cyber 
        professionals;
            (6) preventing and mitigating identity theft and guarding 
        against abuses or breaches of personally identifiable 
        information;
            (7) enhancing United States diplomatic capacity and public-
        private international cooperation to respond to emerging cyber 
        threats, including promoting security and freedom of access for 
        communications and information networks around the world and 
        battling global cyber crime through focused diplomacy;
            (8) expanding tools and resources for investigating and 
        prosecuting cyber crimes in a manner that respects privacy 
        rights and civil liberties and promotes United States 
        innovation; and
            (9) maintaining robust protections of the privacy of United 
        States citizens and their online activities and communications.
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