Washington (970 WFLA) - U.S. Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) will serve as the top Democrat on a new Senate panel focused on cyber threats facing the United States. Nelson's office says in a statement that the Senate Armed Services Committee formed the subcommittee in the wake of Russia's reported interference in the 2016 U.S. election. The panel will help ensure that the U.S. can defend itself in cyberspace, and that it will hold the incoming Donald Trump administration accountable if it fails to respond to a future attack adequately.
"You can’t just sit on your hands and do nothing," Nelson said in his office's statement. "If we’re going to deter our enemies from attacking us, we have to make it painfully obvious that the consequences are going to be so severe that they won’t want to do it in the first place."