Under Senate rules, a single senator can hold up a nominee even if the other 99 want to move forward, using up floor time as lawmakers vote their way through what would otherwise be routine procedural hurdles. Legislators often use holds or even the threat of holds to negotiate concessions from the executive branch.
CISA referred questions on the matter to the White House, which did not return a message seeking comment. Plankey, who was nominated last month to lead the agency, did not return a message.
Wyden has had success with such tactics in the past. In 2018, Wyden held up the nomination of Trump’s first nominee for CISA, Chris Krebs, until the Department of Homeland Security agreed to hand over information about cell phone surveillance in Washington. Wyden ultimately lifted the hold
, opens new tab when DHS complied.
In his remarks, Wyden noted that he had been fighting for three years to get the report released, saying it was both unclassified and particularly relevant in light of the recent wave of breaches blamed on the Chinese hacking group nicknamed “Salt Typhoon,” which he and others have blamed in part on shoddy cybersecurity at top U.S. telecommunications providers.
“CISA’s multi-year cover up of the phone companies’ negligent cybersecurity has real consequences,” the remarks said. “Congress and the American people have a right to read this report.
Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden has put a hold on the Trump administration’s nomination of Sean Plankey to head the federal government’s top cybersecurity agency, citing a “multi-year cover up” of security flaws at U.S. telecommunication companies.
Wyden said in remarks, that he will block the nomination of Plankey to serve as director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) until the agency agrees to release a 2022-dated unclassified report it commissioned detailing security weaknesses across the U.S. telecom network.
Senate rules allow for any serving senator to unilaterally and indefinitely hold up a federal nomination. As noted by Reuters, which was first to report Wyden’s hold on Plankey’s nomination, lawmakers often use nomination holds — or the threat of a hold — to demand concessions from the executive branch.
Scott McConnell, a spokesperson for CISA, referred comment to the White House, which did not return TechCrunch’s request for comment.
In remarks slated for Wednesday, Wyden — who serves on the Senate Intelligence Committee — said his staff members were previously permitted to read the unclassified report but that efforts to publicly release its findings were refused. Wyden said he appealed to then-CISA Director Jen Easterly as well as then-President Joe Biden to release the report prior to the change in government.
Wyden said the report is a “technical document containing factual information about U.S. telecom security … as such, this report contains important factual information that the public has a right to see,” he added.
“CISA’s multi-year cover up of the phone companies’ negligent cybersecurity has real consequences,” said Wyden, referring to the widespread hacking of U.S. phone companies by Chinese spies known as Salt Typhoon, revealed last year.
Wyden said the hacks, which allowed the hackers to snoop on calls and text messages of senior American officials, were “the direct result of U.S. phone carriers’ failure to follow cybersecurity best practices … and federal agencies failing to hold these companies accountable.
