DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 1999 (Senate - July 30, 1998)

[Page: S9375]

The Senate continued with the consideration of the bill.

AMENDMENTS NOS. 3420 THROUGH 3464, EN BLOC

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I have sent to the desk the first managers' package. And I believe that it has been cleared on both sides.

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There should be 44 separate amendments in that package. They have been cleared on both sides, and unless there is some discussion, I ask unanimous consent the first managers' package be adopted and any statements offered by any Senator appear in the Record prior to adoption of that Senator's amendment that is in the package.

I add to it, Senator Inouye has a managers' amendment--this would be the first amendment of Senator Inouye--for Ms. Moseley-Braun that pertains to the National Guard Armory in Chicago.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

The managers' amendment is adopted.

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[Page: S9379]

AMENDMENT NO. 3430

(PURPOSE: TO REDUCE FUNDS AVAILABLE FOR NAVY S-3 WEAPON SYSTEM IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM AND TO PROVIDE FUNDS FOR A CYBER-SECURITY PROGRAM)

On page 99, insert in the appropriate place the following new general provisions:

Sec. 8104. Within the amounts appropriated under Title IV of this Act under the heading `Research, Development, Test and Evaluation, Navy', the amount available for S-3 Weapon System Improvement is hereby reduced by $8,000,000: Provided, Within the amounts appropriated under Title IV of this Act under the heading `Research, Development, Test and Evaluation, Air Force', the amount available for a cyber-security program is hereby increased by $8,000,000: Provided further, That the funds are made available for the cyber-security program to conduct research and development on issues relating to security information assurance and to facilitate the transition of information assurance technology to the defense community.

Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, the Department of Defense and many other government agencies are increasing their use and reliance on information technology for a wide variety of applications.

The growing frequency and increasing sophistication of attacks on the Defense Department's computer networks is cause for concern. Other government agencies, as well as the private sector, are also subject to these attacks on their network infrastructure.

Last year, the Administration organized an exercise to test the Pentagon's ability to deal with cyber attacks. In this exercise, several computer specialists from the National Security Agency targeted computers used by our military forces in the United States and our forces in the Pacific. Using computers, modems, and software technology widely available on the Internet, these friendly `hackers' were able to penetrate unclassified military computer networks in Hawaii, Washington, D.C., Chicago, St. Louis and Colorado.

We need to do more to protect the Defense Department networks that are critical for the operation of our military forces around the world. My amendment, which is fully offset, adds $8 million to the Air Force Information Systems Security Program. The additional funds will be used for research by the Air Force and will rely on the expertise of two federally funded research and development centers currently working on issues of information security. These efforts will facilitate the development of information security technology for the Armed Forces, and I urge the Senate to approve it.