Administration divide: The White House’s statement late Thursday came just a day after senior leaders of the Justice Department and the FBI sharply criticized the bill for not requiring hack reports to go jointly to CISA and the bureau.
Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said the legislation “makes us less safe,” and FBI Director Christopher Wray said the bill “has some serious flaws.”
No other senior administration official has described the bill in those dire terms, nor even criticized the legislation publicly. Easterly previously urged Congress to pass it as soon as possible.
Work in progress: Horne did say that the White House was interested in tweaking the bill to address DOJ’s concerns.
“The administration remains committed to working with the House, and exploring all options, to ensure that the legislation enables all relevant federal agencies to receive and process these incident reports as quickly as possible to carry out their cybersecurity missions,” she said.
But she did not indicate that President Joe Biden would veto the bill absent those changes, which the bill’s sponsors have repeatedly demonstrated that they do not want to make.