Brennan told the Council on Foreign Relations this week that an executive order would be a “good vehicle” to direct government actions to improve cybersecurity at critical infrastructure facilities, according to a report by Reuters.
"One of the things that we need to do in the executive branch is to see what we can do to maybe put additional guidelines and policies in place under executive branch authority", Brennan was quoted by Reuters as saying.
Earlier this month, the Senate failed to pass the Cybersecurity Act, which contained many of the legislative proposals put forward by the Obama administration last year. However, it was significantly modified in response to critics on both the right and left of the political spectrum. The sponsors of the bill, led by Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), agreed to drop government mandates on industry and to beef up privacy protections for information sharing.
An executive order would in effect bypass Congress in order to implement President Obama’s cybersecurity agenda.