The proposed legislation is called the Cybersecurity Act (S.773) and is a revised version of a bill that was originally introduced by the two Senators last year.

It seeks to improve national cybersecurity preparedness by fostering a closer collaboration between the government and private sector companies, which own a vast portion of the country's critical infrastructure.

The bill would require the President to work with owners of critical infrastructure systems to identify and properly classify IT systems whose disruption would threaten strategic national interests.

It would also require federal agencies that are involved in cybersecurity, to share information with private sector operators of critical infrastructure networks.

The bill contains several provisions designed to encourage the growth of a trained and certified cybersecurity workforce, promote public awareness of cybersecurity issues and to foster and fund research leading to the development of new technologies.