POLITICS - What Our Federal Legislature Leaves Undone (Part-2)

"Critical U.S. Infrastructure Vulnerable to Cyber Attack, Congress Fails to Act" (Series Part-2) PBS Newshour 8/8/2012

Excerpt

JUDY WOODRUFF (Newshour): Next, another look at some of the work Congress failed to finish before leaving for its August recess.

Tonight, the subject is cybersecurity.

Margaret Warner has the story.

MARGARET WARNER (Newshour): America is increasingly exposed to the threat of cyber-attacks, as hackers go after money, intellectual property and other data from individuals, the financial industry, corporations, government and the defense business.

Last Thursday, the U.S. Senate took up a bill to address the vulnerability in one key sector: the country's critical infrastructure, including the electrical grid, nuclear power plants, oil and gas lines, water supply, and transit systems.

MAN: The motion is not agreed to.

MARGARET WARNER: But Republicans filibustered the measure, and it fell well short of the 60 votes needed to cut off debate. With that, lawmakers left for the August recess, leaving the bill's co-sponsors, Joe Lieberman and Susan Collins, frustrated.

NOTE: The title of the video, at this time, in incorrect

Significant excerpt

JOEL BRENNER, author, America the Vulnerable: ...Department of Homeland Security began keeping figures on this in 2009, there were four such attacks. Last year, there were 198. The numbers are pretty -- they really tell the story.

So now Republicans sacrifice our nation's security to their no-regulation doctrine.