Rural healthcare providers want to begin participating in the FCC Connected Care Program, which is expected to get commissioners' approval on Thursday, agency and industry officials said in interviews last week. The $100 million, three-year pilot will help boost access to healthcare, experts said.
House Antitrust Subcommittee members bowed five bills Friday to address alleged abuse of market power by Google, Facebook, Amazon and other major tech companies the subpanel identified in an October report (see 2010060062). Each measure had GOP lead co-sponsors.
Ransomware cyberattacks on massive targets such as Colonial Pipeline are rising and in the public eye, but TV and radio stations can also be attractive targets, said cybersecurity experts and broadcasters in interviews. And sometimes, such attacks on station owners are high profile.
Mark Warner, D-Va., is confident the Senate Intelligence Committee he chairs will produce "strong" bipartisan legislation “within the next couple of weeks” on mandatory reporting of cyberattacks, he told an Axios webinar Thursday. He hopes the Biden administration endorses the legislation “since it will be strongly supported,” and that “we can move on this quickly,” he said.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., set a Monday vote to invoke cloture on FTC nominee Lina Khan, setting up a likely final vote as soon as Tuesday. The House Commerce Committee, meanwhile, voted 30-22 Thursday to advance the Consumer Protection and Relief Act to restore FTC Act Section 13(b) consumer redress authority to the commission. House Commerce Republicans echoed their earlier displeasure with HR-2668 (see 2105270067) during the markup.
The U.S. and EU should stop squabbling over tech issues or risk having China or another authoritarian government step into the gap, speakers told an Information Technology and Innovation Foundation webinar. High on President Joe Biden's agenda for the summit in Brussels next week is discussion of the relationship, including whether the EU should stop attacking America's tech sector and Biden should refrain from giving away too much to make amends to Europe for the previous administration's attitude, said ITI President Robert Atkinson Tuesday. He accused Europe of deploying a range of tools to hobble U.S. tech giants, such as the Digital Services Act and limits on cross-border data flows, and urged Biden to aggressively defend America while seeking stronger trans-Atlantic ties.
President Joe Biden revoked former President Donald Trump’s bans on U.S. transactions with major Chinese apps. Biden replaced them Wednesday with an executive order directing the Commerce Department to evaluate “transactions involving” apps “that may pose an undue risk of sabotage or subversion of” U.S. information and communications technology. Last month, Biden revoked Trump’s social media order that sought an FCC rulemaking to clarify interpretation of Communications Decency Act Section 230 (see 2105140074).
Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., plans to introduce legislation to regulate online platforms like common carriers, he told us Monday. Citing a recent opinion from Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas advocating for such (see 2104090046), Wicker hoped to introduce the bill this week.
The Senate plans to vote Tuesday on final passage of the Endless Frontier Act (see 2105270082) and several potential amendments, an aide for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told us Friday. The Senate could consider a manager’s amendment, which might open the door to a host of additional provisions, per an aide for co-sponsor Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind. Some 30 senators are attempting to attach provisions to the manager’s package, lobbyists said.
New provisions for data transfers will give businesses more legal certainty, the European Commission said Friday as it published its long-awaited revamped standard contractual clauses. One SCC set is for use between data controllers and processors, a second is for personal data transfers to third countries. They take into account new requirements under general data protection regulation and the European Court of Justice ruling in Schrems II, which annulled Privacy Shield, the EC said.