The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations isn’t exactly a prestiguous place that top ranking Congressmen desperately seek after an election, but the committee leadership is hoping to change that today, arguing that they should have oversight over the massive “cybersecurity” field.
They are not the first, of course. The House Homeland Security Committee is also claiming it, while two Senate committees, the Commerce, Science and Transport Committee and the Homeland Security Committee, are both arguing that the new programs, with their inevitable new massive spending outlays, should be their domain, and all are holding hearings to that end.
The hearings all have one thing in common – they all feature government experts playing up the enormity of the “cyber-attack” threat, using a lot of war terminology with the prefix cyber attached to it. The question of whether it should be a massive program appears to be moot, all that matters is which committee will get to handle it.
With the Pentagon openly talking up the possibility of military retaliation for hacking efforts, the administration is likely to only continue to add to their expenses going forward. This is bound to encourage more committees to find an excuse to try to claim the role for themselves.
Yes, yes, yes…think of all the "new" sources of "contributions to the campaign coffers" this can open up to those congresscirtters. I'm just surprised that with the enormous potential that the "cyber" field offers to Congress that they haven't decided to make a completely new major committee with attendant staff (permanent and by member). This is going to too big to fit under one of the existing umbrellas. This is the kind of spotlight that could revive some congresscritters flagging popularity/coffers – make them a "contender" down the road somewhere – aspirations of running the whole thang…
It's all about themselves. They really don't give a flying *#&@ about the country – or us.
I can hardly wait for a teenager to get killed in mom's basement for ddos'ing some website.
“I can hardly wait for a teenager to get killed in mom’s basement for ddos’ing some website.”
Yes, I can see it now. The SWAT team comes in after smashing down the door, throws a flash grenade and then shouts “Drop that keyboard or else we’ll shoot!”.
The kid freezes and then they blow his head off and they get medals for meritorious service to the Homeland by taking out yet another “terrorist”.