Sen. Cory Gardner plans to introduce legislation to create a select committee to investigate an array of cybersecurity threats.
John McCain and Lindsey Graham’s bipartisan push to create a special committee to investigate Russia’s election-season hacking and other cybersecurity threats received a potential boost Monday as a third GOP senator announced legislation to make their idea a reality.
Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) told POLITICO he would introduce a bill that, if passed, would mandate a new select Senate committee on cybersecurity. The move could intensify pressure on Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who so far has resisted appointing a select committee on cybersecurity. He insists the chamber’s traditional committees, led by the intelligence panel, should handle the issue.
Gardner’s move came a day after GOP Sens. McCain (R-Ariz.) and Graham (R-S.C.), along with incoming Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York and Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), called for a special panel in a bipartisan letter to McConnell. It’s unclear, however, how extensive GOP support will be for a select committee, since any Republicans who get behind the proposal will be implicitly siding with the Democratic Senate leader instead of their own.
Though Gardner previously has called for a special cybersecurity committee — his pleas to do so predated the spate of recent attention on Russia’s interference in the presidential election by more than a year — the plan to introduce legislation mandating it is new. It adds a fresh wrinkle to an issue that’s dividing the Senate Republican Conference.
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New: @SenCoryGardner to introduce bill establishing select committee on cyber security next year https://t.co/eCvNWhE964
— Burgess Everett (@burgessev) December 20, 2016
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