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The House Wednesday passed H.R. 1560, the "Protecting Cyber Networks Act" in a 307-116 vote, and is poised to vote today on another cybersecurity bill that focuses on the sharing of security threat information, which NAFCU President and CEO Dan Berger discussed during his testimony before the House Small Business Committee Wednesday.

The House-passed H.R. 1560, the "Protecting Cyber Networks Act," aims to enhance the sharing of information about security threats. The second bill, H.R. 1731, the "National Cybersecurity Protection Advancement Act," aims to enhance multi-directional sharing of information about cybersecurity threats and to strengthen privacy and civil liberty protections. NAFCU staff are monitoring the progress of both bills, which the House began debating yesterday.

During Wednesday's hearing, committee Chairman Steve Chabot, R-Ohio, asked Berger about H.R. 1731; Berger noted NAFCU's support for the bill but said more is needed for effective data protection including a robust national data standard for retailers.

NAFCU and 14 other financial trades signed a joint letter Tuesday supporting the bills. The letter signers included the American Bankers Association, the Clearing House, CUNA and the Financial Services Roundtable.

A comprehensive data security measure was approved by the House Energy and Commerce Committee last week – H.R. 1770, the "Data Security and Breach Notification Act" but has not yet been taken up by the full House. NAFCU is pressing lawmakers to strengthen its language on merchant data security standards if the bill moves forward.

NAFCU continues to seek passage of a data security bill that would create a strong national standard of protection for retailers, recognize credit unions' compliance with the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and hold retailers liable for breaches occurring on their end. Such a bill was introduced last week by Sens. Tom Carper, D-Del., and Roy Blunt, R-Mo. NAFCU strongly supports the bill.