The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, aka CISPA and “the new SOPA,” has little chance of actually becoming a law. Obama has made it clear in its current form, he’ll veto the crap out of it. The Senate has no similar bill, which essentially means they don’t care and might kill it in committee. But that doesn’t mean the House, which is apparently angry that all those Internet-y people wrote them all those angry computer letters over SOPA, won’t pass it and waste everyone’s time! Take that, computer letter people!
As we’ve noted before, CISPA is essentially an expansion of a intelligence gathering law passed in the ’40s, but written in such a way that it would supersede all other legislation about wiretaps and intelligence gathering within the United States.
So, how could it be made worse? With lots of stupid amendments, that’s how. For example, Texas Democrat Sheila Jackson Lee, mostly famous for being full of herself, added an amendment that would give the Department of Homeland Security the right to intercept and use any data that goes across federal networks. You know, like your tax returns! They can totally use those!
The really irritating thing is that all they had to do was propose an amendment to remove a clause: “notwithstanding any other provision of the law.” That’s literally all they had to do. And apparently they could not do it.
No wonder Congress enjoys such a high approval rating.
(Image courtesy DonkeyHotey on Flickr)