Cybersecurity: Whose Jurisdiction?

This past Wednesday, the Senate failed to pass a bill that would have provided a system of Cybersecurity for the nation by setting "voluntary security standards for owners of critical infrastructure, such as dams, energy and water systems."  The bill originated in the Senate Homeland Security Committee, where it received bipartisan support.  Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican on the Homeland Security Committee, cosponsored the legislation with Senator Joe Lieberman, an Independent.  Business interests, however, opposed the cybersecurity bill, arguing that it would be a financial burden to companies.

Although the failure of the bill seems to be an issue of protecting rival economic interests, the industrial organization of Congress itself may be at the root of the problem.  Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, the ranking Republican on the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, opposed the bill.  She suggested that certain interests were overlooked in the drafting of the bill and that all committees with jurisdiction over cyber issues should be allowed to provide input in the future.  Weingast and Marshall would argue that Condition 1 of their analysis of the legislative committee system was not strictly held in this instance, in that Hutchison (and presumably others) did not believe that the Homeland Secutiry Committee had a monopoly right over cyber policy.  Although there was a large degree of bipartisanship within the committee (and thus presumably bartering among committee members), there was little room for bargaining outside of the committee.  This led members of other committees that had something at stake - but little influence over the specifics - to reject the bill.