Despite a raging battle on Capitol Hill over member businesslending, credit union and bank trade associations agree on fourHouse bills that address cyber security.

A letter to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and MinorityLeader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), signed by CUNA, NAFCU, the AmericanBanker Association, Independent Community Bankers of America andothers, primarily supports H.R. 3523, the Cyber IntelligenceSharing and Protection Act, which would remove roadblocks to thesharing of threat information and enhance analysis and preventiontools.

The bill would give the Financial Services – Information Sharingand Analysis Center increased access to and authority to sharetimely, actionable threat information with its private-sectormembers.

However, the White House has threatened a veto of this measure.CUNA Senior Vice President of Legislative Affairs Ryan Donovan saidthe Obama Administration instead wants the Department of HomelandSecurity to be the central government entity responsible forcombatting cyber security threats.

However, Homeland Security's involvement could lead toadditional regulatory burden for credit unions, Donovan said. Hecalled the DHS a “federal regulator that may not have anappreciation for the impact of its regulations on financialinstitutions in general and small financial institutions inparticular.”

Additionally, the administration does not like the liabilityprotections that protect financial institutions from being sued forprivacy violations when they share information with thegovernment.

Brad Thaler, NAFCU vice president of legislative affairs, saidthe Obama Administration feels the liability protections forfinancial institutions doesn't do enough to protect civil libertiesand personal privacy.

The bill is expected to pass the House on Thursday or Friday,Thaler said, but the Democrat-controlled Senate will likely “craftsomething different” that will address the White House's concerns.The bill still has “a ways to go” between passing the House andlanding on the president's desk, Thaler said.

H.R. 3523 doesn't address credit union-specific issues such ascard breaches, Thaler said, but instead takes a broaderapproach, aiming to prevent large infrastructure attacks thatattack payment systems, the Internet or power grids.

“It doesn't go as far as we'd want in terms of data security,but at least it's a step in the right direction,” the NAFCUlobbyist said.

The financial services coalition also supports H.R. 2096, theCybersecurity Enhancement Act, which would increase publicawareness and establish programs to increase the federal cyber workforce; H.R. 3834, Advancing America's Networking and InformationTechnology Research and Development Act, providing funding forgovernment research and development of next-generation securitycontrols; and H.R. 4257, the Federal Information SecurityAmendments Act, which would update the federal framework forprotecting federal information technology systems.