Buoyed by a meeting last week between Senate Majority Leader Reid and key Committee chairmen, staff redoubled their efforts over the weekend to develop a compromise cybersecurity bill to be added to the already crowded Senate agenda for the week of July 26. The compromise bill would combine the Lieberman/Collins and Rockefeller/Snowe bills approved by the Senate Committees on Homeland Security and Commerce, respectively, establish a national cybersecurity policy framework and designate the lead federal agency with authority to direct the nation's cybersecurity efforts. DHS is a leading contender for that authority as best able to coordinate the multiple federal regulatory agencies' efforts across multiple industry sectors.

Committee staff indicate that the compromise will focus on enhancing cybersecurity of the "top" sectors, including chemical,electricity and telecommunications. Questions remain whether the compromise bill will incorporate or supplant the electric industry cybersecurity provisions being considered as part of the energy-only bill being readied for Senate consideration before the August recess. The GRID Act, passed unanimously by the House in June, would give FERC authority to bypass the NERC standards setting process to order electric system owners and operators to mitigate cybersecurity vulnerabilities and imminent threats, including electromagnetic pulse and solar flares.