Senate moves ahead with CISA, nixes Rand Paul's amendment to make companies liable

A surveillance bill that has been in limbo for six years has cleared a crucial vote in the Senate.

A vote of 83-14 to end debate on a bundle of amendments to the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) went through the Senate on Thursday. The controversial bill would provide incentives for companies to share user data with the federal government.

Thursday’s vote was the first serious step toward the , but the long-stalled bill faces more debates and procedural votes in the future.

Senate also nixed the amendment suggested by libertarian-leaning Senator and presidential candidate Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), whose campaign websites says that the bill “would transform websites into government spies.” The measure only got 32 votes, short of the simple majority it needed to pass.

The Kentucky senator suggested an amendment to protect the privacy of company’s user data. While CISA would normally protect grant companies immunity from liability for breaking privacy agreements with their customers, Paul’s amendment would strip of them of this immunity.

One of the amendments that the Senate agreed end debate on and allow is from co-sponsors Senators Richard Burr (R-North Carolina) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif). It was put forward to mitigate some of the privacy and surveillance fears that have kept CISA off the Senate floor for so long, and it’s expected to be adopted by the Senate.

"We have been at this for six years," said Feinstein just before the vote, according to The Hill. "This is the third bill. We have been bipartisan."

The Burr-Feinstein amendment is meant to assuage fears by restricting the type of data that companies can share, and set up a system to remove personal data that the government accidentally receives under the measure.

CISA has broad bipartisan support in both chambers of Congress and from the Obama administration.

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