BY: REP. DUTCH RUPPERSBERGER

From the assembly lines of Detroit to the steel mills of Pittsburgh to the oil fields of Houston, our country has been built by an entrepreneurial spirit and thirst for innovation. And despite our recent economic challenges, that spirit is alive and well. Here in Maryland, for example, our growing life sciences sector has generated one-third of all job gains over the last 10 years. It's now supporting more than $9.6 billion in salaries for Maryland families and contributes nearly $500 million to incomes and sales tax revenues each year.

The 500 bioscience companies in Maryland are developing ground-breaking therapies for diseases like muscular dystrophy, inventing state-of-the-art medical devices and testing cutting-edge vaccines. These innovations are valuable and worth protecting. Indeed, just as with designer handbags or secret family recipes, many want to imitate — and even duplicate — such successes.

For decades, countries like China have been using every means possible to steal the ideas of American corporations. Today, thousands of highly trained Chinese, Russian and Iranian hackers are pilfering our trade secrets by breaking into the computer networks of U.S. corporations. And we're leaving the door unlocked for them.

Currently, the U.S government can identify malicious computer code that could be an incoming cyber attack on a government or corporate network. But the law won't allow us to share this information with private companies so that they can protect themselves.

That's why House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, a Michigan Republican, and I have crafted the Cyber Intelligence and Sharing Protection Act (H.R. 3523), which the House overwhelmingly passed this month in a bipartisan vote. This common-sense bill will simply allow the federal government and American companies to share suspicious computer code. Despite recent media reports, the bill does not authorize the government to monitor your computer use or read your email, Tweets or Facebook posts. Nor does it authorize the government to shut down websites or require companies to turn over personal information.

I fought for strong privacy protections throughout the legislative process. We made significant progress in this area through an amendment package that passed the House and was supported by civil liberties advocates and the administration. Privacy protections will only be strengthened as the bill moves to the Senate. I am confident that the House and Senate can work together to pass a bill that will serve our national security while also protecting privacy so the president can sign it into law.

As we work to improve the bill, it's important to keep in mind the significant threat that cyber attacks pose to our safety in addition to our economy. We know terrorist groups such as al-Qaidawould like to hack into the lifesaving systems that protect our water supply, power the electric grid and operate the air traffic control system. Our intelligence leaders — including Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, FBI Director Robert Mueller and National Security Agency Director Keith Alexander — all agree that we are exposed to a potentially catastrophic attack.

Of course, we also need cybersecurity to protect our economic interests, such as the ones under way at the labs of the Johns Hopkins University or University of Maryland and companies like Rockville-based Aeras, which is working on a tuberculosis vaccine. It has taken decades for industries such as Maryland's booming life sciences sector to become a national — and global — force. It wouldn't take years for China to steal it all from us. It could happen in mere keystrokes — unless we take steps, like this bill, to prevent that from happening.

Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, a Democrat and the ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, has represented Maryland's 2nd District since 2003. He can be reached at http://www.dutch.house.gov.

This week, I signed a letter to the Postmaster General to delay closures until Congress considers legislation on this critical issue. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle agree that the United States Postal Service (USPS) cannot sustain itself under its current system. The Senate has already passed legislation to make significant cost-saving reforms. This includes freeing $11 billion that USPS has overpaid into federal retirement accounts and reducing the amount that it has had to “prefund” for retiree health benefits – which no other federal agency must do.

On May 15, the jobs of 8 million postal workers are in jeopardy. I’m asking that this deadline be extended so that the House of Representatives has time to act on comprehensive postal reform legislation to create a financially sound future for the USPS, while leaving intact the important services Americans and American businesses rely on.

“Working together with our international partners and allies, the United States recently stopped a terrorist plot involving Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and an improvised explosive device.  We believe the bomb was going to be used by a suicide bomber on an airplane, but the plot was disrupted before it ever got off the ground.  No U.S. airliners or Americans were ever in danger. 

Good intelligence is the best defense against terrorism.  This foiled plot shows how good intelligence and teamwork can keep our country safe.  The device has the hallmarks of previous bombing attempts by AQAP, including the Christmas Day bombing in 2009.  The device is now in the hands of the FBI where it is being analyzed.

This foiled plot reminds us we must remain vigilant as we work to stop terrorism at home and abroad.”       

Today, the House of Representatives considered a bill that would prevent the student loan rate hike, but pays for it by cutting healthcare for women and children, including immunizations and screenings for cervical and breast cancer. This is an unacceptable, politically-motivated solution that ignores the seriousness of the problem. There are plenty of other suitable offsets in which Republicans and Democrats should be able to find common ground. For example, I am supporting legislation called the “Stop the Rate Hike Act of 2012,” which will instead offset the student loan fix by ending tax breaks for the five largest oil companies. These companies already receive $4 billion in subsidies a year amid record profits.

I spoke at an event honoring military students at Towson University earlier this week and was approached by several students who told me that they could not pursue their degrees without the help of student loans. For every year we wait to act, hard-working students like these will see an additional $1,000 in repayment costs. We should be doing everything we can to ensure young people get the education and skills they need to succeed.  Now is not the time to make school more expensive for our young people.

In a show of bipartisanship, the House of Representatives passed the Cyber Information Sharing & Protection Act by a vote of 248-168.  The bill gives the federal government new authority to share classified cyber threat information with approved American companies and knocks down barriers to cyber threat information-sharing.  With strong provisions built in to keep individual American’s private information private, the bill allows U.S. businesses to better protect their own networks and their corporate customers from hackers looking to steal intellectual property.

US companies and trade associations anxious to better protect their networks and their customers lined up in droves in a show of strong support for this bill, including Facebook, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Boeing, financial trade associations, AT&T, utilities groups, Intel, tech associations and many others.

“We can’t stand by and do nothing as U.S. companies are hemorrhaging from the cyber looting coming from nation states like China and Russia,” Chairman Rogers said.  “America will be a little safer and our economy better protected from foreign cyber predators with this legislation.  I commend the bipartisan effort on this bill. And I thank Ranking Member Ruppersberger for his leadership in getting 42 Democrats to join this important legislation.  I encourage the Senate to take up the bill soon so we can move it to the President’s desk.”   

“One credit card company said that they get attacked for your personal information 300,000 times a day, one company,” Chairman Rogers said during the open floor debate of the bill.  “One company in particular estimated they lost 20,000 good-paying manufacturing jobs for Americans because countries like China stole their intellectual property and illegally competed against them in the market place,” Rogers said.

"This is not just a victory on the House floor. This is victory for America," said Ranking Member C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger. "Our nation is one step closer to making a real difference protecting our country from a catastrophic cyber attack. This shows what can happen when Democrats and Republicans work together for the good of our country. This robust, open, bipartisan process made a good bill even better. I look forward to seeing it taken up in the Senate."

Chairman Rogers and Ranking Member Ruppersberger worked collaboratively for over a year with hundreds of U.S. companies, industry associations, and privacy and civil liberties groups, including the ACLU and the CDT, as the bill was drafted, and through the process of bringing the bill to the House Floor.  Their transparency in the process and open engagement with all interested parties, produced a bill that provides the protections American businesses need, while simultaneously protecting the privacy rights of individuals.

By permitting the private sector to expand its own cyber defense efforts and to use classified information to protect its systems and networks, this bill will help create a more robust cybersecurity marketplace with expanded service offerings and jobs.  More importantly, this bill does not contain any new federal spending or impose additional federal regulation or unfunded mandates on the private sector.

This week, we joined people in the State of Israel and her many friends around the world in celebrating Yom Ha’atzmaut - the independence from British mandatory rule and the establishment of the State of Israel.

The United States and Israel have shared a special bond since the establishment of the Jewish State in 1948. The United States, under the leadership of then-President Truman, was the first country to recognize Israel, only 11 minutes after its founding. Today, the United States and Israel continue to share a commitment to democracy, the rule of law, the freedoms of religion and speech, as well as respect for human rights.  The United States and Israel also share a desire for peace and stability.

Our countries cooperate closely on intelligence issues, partnering on the development of new technology to promote the security and safety of our citizens. Bilateral ties in trade were codified in the 1985 U.S-Israel Free Trade Agreement. Today, the American and Israeli governments and businesses are working together to develop and promote new energy solutions.

The Jewish people paid a heavy price for security and independence.  Nearly 23,000 men and women have been killed defending Israel since the first Jewish settlers left the secure walls of Jerusalem in 1860. Since the end of the War of Independence, nearly 2,500 people have been killed by terror attacks in Israel, including 14 in the past year.

Today, despite disturbing political instability in the region, Israel stands strong.  She is among the safest countries in the world, her economy is sound, life expectancy there is among the highest in the world, and more Israelis earn advanced degrees than most other nations.  And, at a time when our own country is challenged by polarizing politics, an astounding 88 percent of Israelis say they are proud to be Israeli.

I want to extend my best wishes to the people of Israel as we celebrate Israel’s extraordinary friendship and honor her achievements over the past 64 years. 

Few innovations have transformed humankind like the Internet. What began as a Department of Defense research project has morphed into a global system of interconnected networks making us more connected, more informed and more efficient. We pay our bills, get directions, seek out information, connect with our loved ones and put to use countless other new and vital applications. But all of these life-changing tools are at risk because the Internet is under attack.

Rampant industrial espionage is costing American jobs and billions of dollars, and the United States has simply ignored this problem for too long. Foreign states such as China and Russia are investing major resources to attack our job producers every day in an attempt literally to steal our way of life.

After a year of investigating the nature of the threat, we have discovered that the solution does not lie with government but with the private sector. That’s why we introduced bipartisan legislation in Congress that provides authority to private-sector entities to defend their own networks and those of their corporate customers and to share cyber threat information with others in the private sector, as well as with the federal government on a purely voluntary basis.

By permitting the private sector to expand its own cyber defense efforts and to employ classified information to protect systems and networks, this legislation will enhance cybersecurity and better protect the systems and networks we all rely on without costing the taxpayers a dime.

We are proud of this legislation in large part because it was drafted through an open and transparent process, with the input of more than 100 private-sector companies, trade groups, privacy and civil liberties advocates, as well as the executive branch. As a result, the bill enjoys support from virtually every sector of the economy. We wanted to get it right, and we believe we have succeeded in crafting a narrow, carefully tailored bill that will protect our resources and infrastructure while also protecting Americans’ privacy rights.

Strong protections are included in the bill to ensure that private information remains private. The bill strictly limits the government. It cannot demand any cyber threat information from the private sector or withhold government intelligence to force the private sector to share information. Moreover, information shared by the private sector must be protected from disclosure and used only under strict conditions.

Under no circumstances is this legislation an attempt to regulate the Internet. Twitter and Facebook helped the oppressed spur revolutions for freedom from Iran to Egypt to Tunisia. and we support free and open access to these portals. This bill would actually allow companies such as Facebook, which actively supports the measure, to better protect itself (and, as a result, its millions of users).

Strong action must be taken now, as it’s only a matter of time before a catastrophic event destroys trust in the Internet as an engine for economic growth. In the 21st century we must stay in front of technological threats, as well as conventional ones, while respecting privacy and civil liberties and providing the private sector with the information it needs to defend itself.

In the case of cybersecurity, the government can play an important role while it empowers private business to do what it does best: innovate.

Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) is chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.) is the ranking member.