The House is expected to finish work Thursday on legislation that would authorize cybersecurity research and development funding and calls for the creation of cybersecurity standards. House lawmakers began work Wednesday on the Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2009, adopting several amendments before putting off votes on four other amendments and on final passage until Thursday.

The bill, introduced by Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Ill., would give greater responsibility to the National Institute of Standards and Technology to create a list of voluntary standards for best cybersecurity practices to help prevent international cybercrime. In addition, the bill aims to improve coordination of the federal government's cybersecurity R&D efforts by requiring the agencies involved to develop a strategic plan outlining short-term and long-term research objectives. It also would authorize $395 million over five years for cybersecurity R&D at the National Science Foundation.

"NIST's long history of standards development makes it ideally suited to represent the U.S. Government in helping to develop the hardware and software protocols that underlie the Internet and communications systems," said Lipinski, chairman of the Science and Technology Committee's Research and Science Education Subcommittee. "Strong standards are one of the best ways to make sure that we don't have loopholes that can be exploited."

A Senate counterpart, proposed by Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Chairman John (Jay) Rockefeller, D-W.Va., would give the government greater power to coordinate Internet security. Lipinski said he expects his bill to "complement" pieces of Rockefeller's bill and also could be combined with other bills aimed at implementing the recommendations of the Obama administration's cybersecurity review released last year.

Business Software Alliance President Robert Holleyman said the bill "recognizes that the government can contribute significantly to improved U.S. and global cyber security by supporting and influencing the development of international cyber-security standards, which underpin the global marketplace."