Surprise -- House to Move Before Senate on Cyber Legislation

For months everyone watching as cyber legislation moved on Capitol Hill has been sure of only one thing -- that the main action was in the Senate where the basic outlines of any legislative deal would be forged.  The House, went the common wisdom, would have to follow along after Senate consideration.  No longer.  According to Politico, the House plans to bring up a suite of bills the week of April 23 in what is now being called "cyber-week."  The core of the effort will be the Rogers-Ruppersberger information sharing bill from the House Intelligence Committee, to be combined with a McCaul bill on cyber education, an Issa bill on FISMA reform and a modified version of the Lungren best standards legislation considered by House Homeland Security.  This package of individual bills will be procedurally combined and sent on the Senate.  Meanwhile, the Senate's consideration (originally promised before the current Easter recess) now is backed up behind postal reform and other contentious measures.  The Senate won't get to cyber legislation until May, it seems -- and then the dynamic will be different.  Instead of asking which base bill (Lieberman-Collins, or McCain) to prefer, the Senate may now have a third option -- the House-passed cyber-week legislation.  Curiouser and curiouser.