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POLITISPEAK

POLITISPEAK

Political news releases regularly fill the Charles City Press editor email. Here are some scooped from the waves.

Ernst on cybersecurity

U.S. Senator Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, released the following statement after voting in support of the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 (CISA), bipartisan legislation to improve America’s cybersecurity through voluntary information sharing.

“The cyber threat against our nation is one of the most severe threats we face in the 21st century.

“CISA is an important first step to improve our cybersecurity capabilities in both the private and public sectors. This bipartisan legislation achieves an important balance – including both rigorous oversight to ensure Americans’ privacy is protected, as well as procedures to bolster the government’s ability to deter, detect, and defend against cyberattacks.

“Cyberspace has provided hackers, terrorists, and our adversaries around the world with the capability to cause massive damage and greatly impact our way of life with a few keystrokes on a computer. If we do nothing, cyberattacks are sure to continue, leaving our information and national security at greater risk.

“Our cybersecurity experts must be able to gain a technological advantage and have the means necessary to prevent future attacks. CISA confronts these challenges by creating a voluntary framework to promote real time information sharing across the government and private sector in order to keep our systems secure and help to prevent cyberattacks before they happen.”

Grassley on judicial nominations

This news release was of Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley’s prepared floor statement on Oct. 26.

'Today, the Senate confirmed the 316th judicial nominee during President Obama’s presidency, so I wanted to take this opportunity to provide an update on judicial nominations progress. These 316 confirmations are in contrast to the only 292 judicial nominees the Senate had confirmed by this point in 2007 during George W. Bush’s presidency. So, at this point in their respective seventh year of Presidency, President Obama has 24 more judicial nominees confirmed than President Bush did.

“Furthermore, contrary to what one might hear, there is no judicial vacancy crisis. This year has the lowest average vacancy rate during Obama’s Presidency, and is among the lowest in the last 25 years. Both the district and circuit courts are over 92 percent filled.

“As I have said before, the Senate Judiciary Committee is moving at the same pace this year that it did under Democrat control in 2007 during the last two years of President Bush’s presidency. By this point in 2007, the committee had held 10 hearings for a total of 29 nominees (26 judicial nominees and 3 executive nominees). We have held 9 hearings for a total of 29 nominees (24 judicial nominees and 5 executive nominees) including hearings for both the Attorney General and the Deputy Attorney General.

I just wanted to set the record straight and remind all my colleagues that the Senate continues to make good progress on judicial nominations.

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