Terry Joins Leading House and Senate Republicans Urge President to Rethink Issuing Cybersecurity Executive Order |
WASHINGTON, DC – Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate today urged President Barack Obama to refrain from issuing an executive order exerting regulatory influence over the Internet in the name of cybersecurity. The members expressed concern that using executive power to regulate the Internet would bolster the arguments being made by nations such as Russia, China, and Iran that are seeking global government control and undermine the United States' position to continue the current multistakeholder governance model which has allowed the Internet to flourish. Both the House and Senate have unanimously approved resolutions that oppose such attempts to exert regulatory control over the Internet. The bicameral leaders are also concerned that a top-down approach to cybersecurity will slow the response and impose unnecessary costs on the economy. The members wrote, "Lawmakers in both chambers of Congress and on both sides of the aisle agree that cybersecurity is of critical importance to America's safety and prosperity in the 21st century. The House of Representatives has already passed the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) to bring the nation's considerable wealth of public and private sector intelligence to bear on the challenge of securing America's vital communications networks. A number of proposals continue to be debated in the Senate. The United States has been a beacon of online freedom. Unilateral action altering oversight of the Internet in this country could be interpreted by the rest of the world as a statement of 'do as I say, not as I do.' |