The comprehensive measure in the Senate, backed by Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), John Rockefeller (D-W.V.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), was put on the fast track by Majority Leader Harry Reid, who had signaled that he planned to bring the bill to a floor debate shortly, though lately other issues such as the "Buffet rule" bill have jumped to the head of the line for Senate consideration. A Reid spokesman could not immediately be reached to comment on the latest timetable for the floor debate on the Lieberman-Collins cybersecurity bill.

Backers of the Republican alternative, led by Arizona's John McCain, have , which has seen the comprehensive measure sail through committee without debate or an opportunity to introduce amendments. Reid and others have insisted that the floor debate will be an open process that will offer ample time for members to air concerns and bring forth amendments.

In the meantime, several committees in the House have been examining the cybersecurity question, and GOP leaders plan to bring the various piecemeal bills up for debate later this month in what they are reportedly dubbing "cyber week." One of those measures, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), easily passed the House Intelligence Committee in December. That measure, backed by intelligence committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and Maryland's Dutch Ruppersberger, the ranking Democrat on the panel, would facilitate new channels of information sharing between businesses and the federal government.

While CISPA saw strong bipartisan support at the committee level, it has lately become the target of vocal opposition by civil rights groups like the Center for Democracy and Technology and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which have warned that the bill is overly broad, and could lead to excessive monitoring and surveillance, and result in information being shared for the sake of protecting intellectual property. In that sense, the groups are raising concerns that are similar to their objections to SOPA and PIPA, and EFF and others have declared the week beginning April 16 a "week of action opposing CISPA."

"CIPSA would allow ISPs, social networking sites and anyone else handling Internet communications to monitor users and pass information to the government without any judicial oversight," EFF Activism Director Rainey Reitman said in a statement. "The language of this bill is dangerously vague, so that personal online activity -- from the mundane to the intimate -- could be implicated."