The Washington Examiner reports: House lawmakers voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday in favor of deepening collaboration with the Israeli government to strengthen the cybersecurity defenses of both countries on Tuesday.
Reps. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, and Jim Langevin, D-R.I., gained broad bipartisan support for a pair of bills they introduced to provide federal funding for cybersecurity research conducted jointly in the United States and Israel. The first bill passed by voice vote under a suspension of the rules reserved for non-controversial legislation, while the second bill passed in a voice later later the same evening.
The cybersecurity bills have the practical and diplomatic significance of forging another connection with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, which clashed with the Obama administration over the nuclear deal with Iran — a regime that launched cyber attacks on the State Department following the resolution of the Iran deal.