Senate rejects bill to boost cybersecurity spending

The Senate on Friday rejected a proposal that would have boosted cyber-security funding. By a vote of 50-50, the chamber rejected an effort by Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., to add $15 billion for homeland security to a spending bill, H.R. 3338. Among other things, Byrd's package would have allotted $1 billion for federal, state and local law enforcement, $225 million of it to increase coordination between federal and state law enforcement and to upgrade the FBI's technology. Another $500 million would have been allotted to state and local law enforcement agencies, and $150 million would have gone toward cyber security. "It is alarming to know that the next terrorist attack could cripple our nation's economy simply by a few strokes of the keyboard," Byrd said Thursday during floor debate. He noted that cyber attacks have cost the nation's economy about $12 billion this year alone.