Giffords border legislation heads to White House

In a few brief seconds Thursday, the Senate joined in the farewell celebration for Gabrielle Giffords, the Arizona Democrat who resigned from the House on Wednesday a year after the Tucson shootings that left six dead and 13 injured.

Late Thursday, by unanimous consent, the Senate approved her legislation that imposes tougher penalties on cross-border smugglers of drugs, an issue that has been in the spotlight for several years in her southern Arizona district.

Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords stood among cheering, crying House colleagues to say goodbye Wednesday. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

“What a wonderful statement that was made by members of the House yesterday, signifying the great courage the whole country feels for this great woman. … We all wish her the best,” Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said after the last bill authored by Giffords was approved. It now goes to President Obama for his signature, following Wednesday’s 408-to-0 vote in the House also approving the bill.

The House vote came amid an emotional send-off Wednesday for the lawmaker, who has made remarkable strides after being shot in the head but announced last week that she needs to devote herself full-time to her recovery.

Security has become a central issue along the Arizona-Mexico border following several high-profile shootings. Giffords had previously won support of border legislation in August 2010, which she touted in her tough reelection victory that November.

This new legislation takes aim at smugglers who use low-flying ultra-light planes to cross the border and deliver drugs. According to her office, the bill eliminates a loophole that targeted drug smuggling by car and airplane. It would, her office said, “establish the same penalties for trafficking, whether by plane, automobile or ultra light: up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.”

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Senate set to take up major cyber legislation

Congress is moving closer to taking up comprehensive cybersecurity legislation, and a Senate aide confirmed this week that Majority Leader Harry Reid will bring a package to the floor before President’s Day.

Meanwhile, eight former senior government officials sent a letter this week to Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, urging the Senate to approve legislation to better protect the nation’s critical computer networks from attack.

A senior aide to Reid, Tommy Ross, said that legislation could be on the floor as early as next week.

“What comes to the floor will reflect wide agreement,” Ross said this week at the annual “State of the Net” conference.

Last November, Reid wrote to McConnell that he would bring the Cybersecurity and Internet Freedom Act to the floor during the Senate’s first work period of 2012, which ends on President’s Day.

Over the past several years, dozens of cybersecurity bills from across a variety of committees have been penned, but no comprehensive legislation has ever made it to the floor of either chamber of Congress. This year could be different.

Backers of the new legislation say it will address significant cyber issues, improving the security of the nation’s critical infrastructure and encouraging the sharing of threat information between government and industry without violating individual privacy. The legislation is also expected to address whether to set up a new White House office of national cyberspace policy.

But significant hurdles remain over issues of regulation, privacy protections, and how much authority the executive branch should have to direct response actions in an emergency.

“As former executive branch officials who shared the responsibility for our nation’s security, we are deeply concerned by the severity and sophistication of the cyber threats facing our nation,” said the letter that was sent this week to Reid and McConnell, and that was signed by former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, former Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn III, former Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell, and former White House cyber czar Richard Clarke, among others.

The authors noted that the administration has weighed in with its proposals, most of which are not too far afield from drafts of Senate legislation.

“The threat is only going to get worse,” the letter said. “Inaction is not an option.”

Some observers are hopeful that at least some elements of the legislation could win enough support. But a key lawmaker, Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, “does not support enacting cybersecurity on a piecemeal basis,” a spokeswoman said.

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