[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5559]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1330
                         PROTECT PRIVACY RIGHTS

  (Mr. O'ROURKE asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. O'ROURKE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to explain my ``no'' vote on 
CISPA. There's no doubt that Congress must act to improve cybersecurity 
and combat ongoing cyber threats, but we should never legislate out of 
fear or sacrifice essential rights, such as privacy, in the name of 
security.
  Despite improvements, the bill contains unacceptable threats to 
privacy and lacks adequate safeguards and accountability. I am opposed 
to allowing private companies to share personal information with other 
companies and the government without making reasonable efforts to 
remove personally identifiable information. If Congress does not 
require companies to make these efforts, they will not do so.
  In addition, private entities will operate with immunity under this 
legislation, and the people I represent will have no recourse should 
their privacy be violated. The changes made to the bill did not address 
this underlying problem, and I could not vote for it.
  We can fix these shortcomings, and we should. Let's improve 
cybersecurity and protect the privacy rights of the people we are so 
honored to represent.

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