Senator Coons introduces amendment to sunset key provisions of Cybersecurity Act

Two hours after the Senate voted 84-11 on Thursday to proceed to the Cybersecurity Act of 2012 — a bill Senator Coons worked aggressively to shape — the Senator introduced an amendment to add a "sunset" to the legislation that would cause provisions that allow expanded systems monitoring and information sharing to expire five years after the legislation is enacted.

Sunsets are written into often written into new legislation to ensure that Congress revisits the issue and deliberately reauthorizes the law. This gives Congress an explicit opportunity to update the law to take into account lessons learned and best practices, ultimately making the law better. While House-passed cybersecurity legislation includes a five-year sunset of the expanded systems-monitoring and information-sharing provisions of the legislation, the Senate's Cybersecurity Act does not.

Senator Coons' amendment was cosponsored by Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), Al Franken (D-Minn.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and Tom Udall (D-N.M.). The full text is below.