Majority Statement

• Senator John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV

  Chairman

  U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
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  Majority Statement

  Senator John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV

  The Committee has before it a number of important bills and nominations to consider this afternoon. Before I discuss the agenda items, I would like to thank Senator Thune and the Members of the Committee for their efforts on moving these bills and nominations forward. This is our first meeting to report legislation in the 113^th Congress. It is the product of 36 Committee hearings and constructive engagement from both Committee Members and staff.   

  Three of the bills we will consider today were priorities of Senator Inouye, who was a long-time member and former Chairman of this Committee. He was a great friend to me. We complete his work as a way to honor his legacy and his commitment to protecting the ocean’s resources.

  I am very pleased that one of the bills we are marking up today is S. 1353, the “Cybersecurity Act of 2013,” which Senator Thune and I introduced last week. I am not going to say a lot about this legislation because we had a good discussion about it last Thursday at a hearing with NIST Director Pat Gallagher and three representatives from the private sector. Our country’s information networks are under attack, and I am glad this Committee is showing bipartisan leadership in addressing this threat.   

  Our bill takes some important steps to help our private companies and our government agencies to defend their networks against their adversaries. It doesn’t do everything we need to do to improve our cybersecurity, but it’s a good start and I thank Senator Thune for working with me on this urgent issue.

  Another issue that is critical to this country’s future is the violence in our culture. I strongly believe that we need to address all components of gun violence if we have a fighting chance at protecting our families and communities. This includes studying the levels of violence in the video games our children play and the media they watch. Recent court decisions have shown that we need to do more so that Congress can lay additional groundwork on this issue. The National Academy of Sciences’ report that would be commissioned by the “Violent Content Research Act” will be a critical resource in this process. 

  The FCC has been a strong partner in this area. Unfortunately, the FCC has been without a Chairman for more than two months now, even though this Committee considered Tom Wheeler’s nomination to be Chairman more than a month ago. I said this at his nomination hearing, and I will say it again: Tom Wheeler is well-qualified to be FCC Chairman, with a distinguished career in the communications industry.

  He ably demonstrated his knowledge of the issues the FCC will face in the coming years at his nomination hearing. He also has answered all of his questions for the record – including all 78 questions from Republicans. I know that there are some on this Committee who believe that we should wait to vote on Mr. Wheeler’s nomination until there is a Republican FCC nominee. But I would remind my colleagues that this Committee moved FTC Commissioner Josh Wright’s unpaired nomination in a shorter timeframe – less than a month after his nomination hearing. Mr. Wheeler deserves the same consideration.

  I am going to defer to Senator Nelson today to talk about the NASA Authorization bill (S. 1317). But I would like to mention that Senator Nelson and the Science and Space Subcommittee have been working hard on NASA policy this year. The Subcommittee has held three hearings and dozens of meetings with NASA and private sector stakeholders. They even hosted a video streaming briefing with astronauts from the International Space Station. Senator Nelson has been vigilant about monitoring the implementation of the 2010 NASA Authorization, and is equally dedicated to completing our work on the new authorization.

  Another important bill we are considering today is S. 921, the “Raechel and Jacqueline Houck Safe Rental Car Act of 2013.” Senators Boxer, McCaskill, and Schumer have been aggressively pursuing this life-saving legislation. It’s no small feat to get consumer groups and the rental car companies to agree to legislation, but I also understand that there are important stakeholders who still have concerns about this bill. The sponsors of this bill are committed to working to address their concerns as the bill moves to the Senate floor.

  I want to end my remarks on a strong note of bipartisanship, so I will give a brief update on cramming. We are making substantial progress on the policy issues that some Republicans have raised, and I expect to markup “The Fair Telephone Billing Act” in September.

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Minority Statement

• Senator John R Thune

  Ranking Member

  U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
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  Minority Statement

  Senator John R Thune

  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As you noted, we have a number of important measures on the agenda today. Chief among them is our bill to strengthen cybersecurity, S.1353, the Cybersecurity Act of 2013. 

  As I mentioned at our hearing on this legislation last week, I want to recognize your steadfast leadership on this issue, which is vital to our national and economic security. I also want to thank you and your staff for the way you have worked with me and my staff on this effort since the beginning of my tenure as Ranking Member. 

  Our bill updates the existing statutory authority of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a non-regulatory agency within the Department of Commerce, to ensure the agency will, on an ongoing basis, facilitate and support the development of a voluntary, industry-led set of standards and best practices to reduce cyber risks to critical infrastructure. 

  Our bill also includes needed titles to improve research and development, strengthen workforce development and education, and increase public awareness and preparedness.

  I am pleased that our offices worked with industry, fellow Senate colleagues, and other stakeholders to solicit and incorporate their feedback in crafting this legislation. 

  Our outreach has been affirmed by numerous letters and statements of support, from companies and groups representing the telecommunications sector, the financial sector, the technology sector, the electric sector, and cross-sector organizations, including the National Association of Manufacturers and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.  

  So far, we have received 18 letters and statements of support from key stakeholders. Several individual letters represent many organizations – such as the one from the financial sector, which includes eleven signatory organizations, and the electric sector, which includes thirteen organizations ranging from public to private, and national to rural companies, as well as municipal organizations. 

  Mr. Chairman, at this time, I would ask that these statements and letters of support be included in the record of today’s session, as well as the record of last week’s hearing.

  Mr. Chairman, in addition to our work on the cybersecurity bill, I am glad that we have been able to work together to make progress on a number of other bills, including a number that I know were important to Senator Inouye and are being advanced in his honor today. 

  I am also pleased to see S. 376, the Drought Information Act of 2013, of which I am a cosponsor, move forward. 

  Drought can be a perennial challenge for the residents of my state and ensuring there are adequate monitoring and forecasting capabilities is critical to ensuring the farmers and ranchers in South Dakota can be prepared. I appreciate the work of Senators Pryor and Moran, who introduced this bill, and I look forward to working with my colleagues to see the bill pass the full Senate. 

  I am similarly pleased that Senator Klobuchar’s resolution, which I and several of our Committee colleagues have cosponsored, on the topic of telephone service in rural areas is moving forward today. In addition, advancement of the bipartisan Small Airplane Revitalization Act is a positive step for innovation and competitiveness in our aviation manufacturing sector.

  Mr. Chairman, as is often the case, we are also advancing some bills today that will require additional modification before the full Senate considers them. 

  For example, I support moving forward with S. 921, the Raechel and Jacqueline Houck Safe Rental Car Act of 2013, recognizing there are some outstanding issues that need to be resolved before the bill receives floor consideration.  

  Other bills, like S.1317, the NASA reauthorization, will likely need even more work before they reflect the kind of consensus that has characterized our Committee’s enacted legislation. With additional effort, however, I am hopeful that we can get there in the weeks and months ahead.

  Mr. Chairman, in addition to legislation, the Committee is poised to approve several nominations today, these include the nomination of Dr. Mark Schaefer to be Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere; the nominations of Board Members for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Amtrak; and several promotions within the U.S. Coast Guard. These nominations are noncontroversial and I expect we will approve them en bloc shortly.

  We are also considering today the nomination of Thomas Wheeler to be the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. 

  As we have discussed, Mr. Chairman, I appreciate your desire to see the Committee take action on this nomination. At the same time, I think the Committee’s precedent suggests that we would be better served by pairing Mr. Wheeler with the anticipated nominee for the Republican vacancy on the FCC – a nomination we hope to receive from the White House very soon.

  In the past, such nominees have frequently – almost always – been paired for Committee consideration. And, the occasional delays in Committee action caused by such pairings have often been offset by speedy confirmation by the full Senate. 

  For example, although former Chairman Genachowski was nominated two-and-a-half months before Commissioner McDowell was re-nominated, they were reported by the Committee on the same day, and confirmed by the full Senate one week later. 

  In the case of Mr. Wheeler, although I intend to support his nomination in Committee, I fully expect that floor consideration will await this Committee’s action on the Republican nominee pending at the White House.

  Notwithstanding my reservations about moving forward on Mr. Wheeler at this time, Mr. Chairman, I want to reiterate my appreciation for your willingness to confer with me throughout the development of today’s agenda and I look forward to other productive markups later this year and next.

  Among other things, I am hoping that our collaboration on cybersecurity legislation may set a precedent for another issue that has proved similarly challenging in the past: data breach legislation. I am a cosponsor of a bill with Senators Toomey and King, and I know that you have cosponsored such legislation in the past. I think we should consider putting this issue near the top of our “to do” list.

  Finally, Mr. Chairman, although I am reluctant to suggest items for other committees’ “to do” lists, I cannot close without returning to the topic of cybersecurity and noting our shared hope that our colleagues on the Senate Intelligence Committee will be successful in crafting bipartisan, consensus legislation to promote robust sharing of cyber threat information, with strong liability protections. We also hope that the Senate Homeland Security Committee can work in a similarly bipartisan fashion to make needed improvements to the Federal Information Security Management Act. 

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