Mike Rogers (Michigan Politician) - Political Positions

Political Positions

While in the Michigan Senate, Rogers wrote legislation creating the Michigan Education Savings Plan, which allows Michigan families to set aside tax-free funds for educating their children when they are ready for college or vocational training. In Congress, Rogers’ measure to make education savings plans free of federal taxes was adopted in 2003 (see Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001). His health savings account program for low-income families who are covered by Medicaid was signed into law on February 8, 2008.

In 2006, he cosponsored H.R. 4411, the Goodlatte-Leach Internet Gambling Prohibition Act and H.R. 4777, the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act. He has also introduced pain care management legislation pertaining to Americans who are restricted by severe, chronic pain.

Rogers was the primary sponsor of the Respect for America's Fallen Heroes Act, H.R. bill 5037, which was signed into law by President George W. Bush on May 29, 2006. This bill is designed to ban protests on Federal Lands, from occurring near the funerals of soldiers that were killed in action.

In November 30, 2011 Congressman Rogers introduced the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA). "The bill would allow the government to share all of its classified cyber-security knowledge with private companies, forming knowledge-sharing agreements that would hopefully keep China (and other countries and hackers) out of American computer networks. The catch is that the information shared is a two-lane street—companies would also be allowed to share private data with the federal government, provided there is a reasonable "cyber threat.""

"In the current version, most personal information would be stripped from data shared with the government, and the bill no longer defines intellectual property theft as something relating to national security "We think we're making huge progress with the privacy groups, so they understand what we're trying to accomplish, which isn't anything nefarious," Rogers said"

Under the National Security Act of 1947, when intelligence services know an attack is aimed at a private network, they are prohibited by law from sharing information about that threat with the targeted company. CISPA has been criticized by groups like the Electronic Frontiers Foundation for a lack of privacy and civil liberties protections. The bill attracted some controversy with its opponents calling the language of the bill too broad and organizing protests against its passage during early to mid April, 2012.

The legislation has been revised to further clarify the type of information that can be shared; the legal definition of cyber threat intelligence, the only information that can be shared per HR 3523, includes: a threat to the integrity, confidentiality, or availability of a system or network of a government or private entity or any information stored on, processed on, or transiting such a system or network; efforts to deny access to or degrade, disrupt, or destroy a system or network of a government or private entity; or efforts to gain unauthorized access to a system or network of a government or private entity, including to gain such unauthorized access for the purpose of exfiltrating information stored on, processed on, or transiting a system or network of a government or private entity. In one step to balance security with civil liberty, the legislation mandates an annual audit and report to Congress by the intelligence community inspector general of all cyber information voluntarily shared with the government to ensure civil liberties protection.

The bill was passed in the House of Representatives in session on April 26, 2012 with a vote of 248 to 168 (with 15 votes abstaining) and is awaiting Senate vote.

The CBO has said that Rogers's H.R. 1206 to relax regulation of health insurance companies would add a billion dollars to the deficit.