Senator questions White House control over cybersecurity

The ranking member of the Senate's Homeland Security Committee, Susan Collins, (R-Maine), Tuesday raised questions about recent calls for a direct White House role in coordinating national cybersecurity affairs.

At a hearing Tuesday morning on strategies for securing cyberspace, Collins said that putting the White House in charge would make it harder for Congress to exercise needed oversight over critical cyber policies and budgets.

Those concerns emerged even as another lawmaker -- Sen. Thomas Carper, (D-Del) -- announced that he is introducing a bill to establish a National Office for Cyberspace that would report to the president. Under the United States Information and Communications Enhancement Act of 2009, the director of that office would be appointed by the president and charge of implementing a government-wide strategy for securing cyberspace.

Carper's bill is similar to two others introduced jointly by Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.). Those bills also want to set up a cybersecurity office in the White House and include a provision that would allow the president to disconnect government and private entities from the Internet for national security reasons or in a cyber emergency.

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