Reid says Republicans 'continue to argue we should do nothing.' | JAY WESTCOTT/POLITICO Dems blame GOP on cybersecurity

No cybersecurity compromise is jelling in the Senate — and the finger-pointing has begun.

The window for legislative action this year is rapidly closing. Democrats, faced with the real possibility that the Senate won’t be able to pass a bill, are openly blaming Republicans.


Majority Leader Harry Reid on Tuesday accused GOP lawmakers of failing to work with Democrats on critical infrastructure provisions in a bill by Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.). Reid lamented that “some key Republicans continue to argue we should do nothing to secure critical infrastructure” despite warnings by intelligence experts.

“It is time for [Republicans] to participate productively in the conversation instead of just criticizing the current approach,” Reid said.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) echoed Reid.

“It’s just very simple. The entire government, the entire national security establishment, the entire military establishment, they all want it and they all want a bill, which is virtually prepared except for, will the Republicans accept the covered critical infrastructure?” Rockefeller said. “If you don’t, then you’re excluding all the grids, all the water systems, all the dam systems, all the hospital systems and all the air-traffic-control systems.”

The comments by Reid and Rockefeller follow a floor speech by Majority Whip Dick Durbin last week in which Durbin tried to blame House Republicans for inaction on the issue.

But Senate Republicans aren’t having it.

Reid’s floor speech amounted to nothing more than “unnecessary rhetoric,” Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison told POLITICO. Hutchison is backing a competing bill by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.)

“We do hope to come to terms with the bills,” Hutchison said. “I think that everybody is serious about this, and there’s no reason to start throwing political punches.”

Reid has been signaling imminent floor action on Lieberman’s bill for months. But Lieberman said Tuesday he doesn’t expect his bill to go to the floor until after the July 4 recess — leaving just a few weeks before the scheduled August recess. If the impasse drags on until August, it’s unlikely the Senate will act on the issue this year — barring the kind of major cyberattack that experts warn is on the horizon.

“I hope to get a really airtight commitment, but I’m afraid it’s looking now like we’re not going to take it up this month, so it will be right after the Fourth of July,” Lieberman told reporters. “But to me, that’s the end. I mean that’s got to be the end or else we’re not going to have a bill this year.”

Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) are trying to hammer out a compromise, but it’s proving to be a tough sell both on and off Capitol Hill.

“I’m looking at it, but I’m not totally satisfied with it yet,” Rockefeller said.

Rockefeller said it’s a “possibility” that Republicans are fighting against the Lieberman bill for political reasons, but that some GOP members are “secretly for” the critical infrastructure provisions in the measure “but don’t want to say so.”

Regardless, any Senate cybersecurity compromise is going to involve a softening of those provisions.

Asked whether he could back legislation that did not include the security standards in his bill, Lieberman answered, “Let’s put it this way — I don’t want to.”