The Cyber Information Sharing Act (CISA) passed to the House on Tuesday after a Senate vote following a full day of discussion and voting on amendments.
The bill passed with an overwhelming majority of 74-21.
Saying the bill was “technical, difficult and hard to put together,” Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said before the bill's final vote that getting it to the floor involved Republicans and Democrats standing “shoulder to shoulder.”
“We did everything in this bill to satisfy what were legitimate privacy concerns,” she said.
The first half of the session yielded votes on five amendments, all of which were not agreed upon, except for amendment #2582. Introduced by Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), the amendment would terminate the provisions of the act after six years and was passed through a voice vote.
Notably, Sen. Al Franken's (D-Minn.) had his amendment voted down, one in which he said represented privacy advocates and cybersecurity experts. He wanted to improve the definition of cybersecurity threat and cyber threat indicators. The amendment didn't pass by a vote of 35-60.
The afternoon session produced three votes on amendments primarily centering on the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) responsibility in enforcing the bill and what role the agency would play.
The only amendment that passed during the latter half of the day was introduced by Senator Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and got the thumbs up by voice vote.
Correction: This article previously referred to Senator Al Franken's represented state as New York. It has been corrected to Minnesota.
