Industry: US Should Halt New Cyber Regulation During Harmonization Effort

The U.S. shouldn’t implement new cyber regulations until the Office of National Cyber Director has completed its formal process for harmonizing regulations across the government, industry groups told the White House in comments posted last week. The ONCD requested comments to “understand existing challenges with regulatory overlap” and harmonize regulations across agencies. USTelecom urged the administration to halt the issuance of new cyber regulations until the review is completed, except for regulations already subject to statutory deadlines. “This temporary pause prevents the introduction of additional, potentially conflicting regulations,” said USTelecom. CTIA suggested the ONCD coordinate with agencies and hold off on any new regulations until the harmonization work is “mature.” Promulgating new requirements may hinder ONCD’s “efforts to harmonize the already vast cybersecurity regulatory landscape,” said CTIA. BSA | The Software Alliance noted the Biden administration’s national cyber strategy “prioritizes regulatory harmonization,” but agencies continue to add more cyber regulations. “To be clear, this is not a call to end the regulation of cybersecurity but to pause new regulations as the US Government gains a wholistic understanding of the regulatory landscape,” said BSA. NCTA suggested the administration can look to NIST’s cybersecurity framework “to achieve design, implementation, operational, and compliance-related efficiencies.”