The Anthem health insurance company’s data breach “is another reminder that the cybersecurity threat to America’s infrastructure is the number one national security risk our country faces,” Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind., said in a statement Thursday. Anthem said the breach may have exposed data for up to 80 million of its policyholders, prompting concerns from members of the Senate Commerce Committee’s Data Security Subcommittee during a hearing on possible data breach notification legislation (see 1502050031). Coats, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he believes it’s “imperative that policymakers break down the barriers to information sharing that limit cyber defenses.” The Senate Intelligence Committee is one of several committees considering cybersecurity information sharing legislation. “Neither industry nor government alone can broadly improve our nation’s cybersecurity, and Congress must renew its commitment to address the wide range of issues posed by cyber threats through targeted legislation,” Coats said. "Our public and private networks remain all too ripe for exploitation, and securing those networks will remain a top priority" for the House Intelligence Committee, said ranking member Adam Schiff, D-Calif., in a statement. He said Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., "and I are determined to make progress on this critical goal, so that we can protect our country, our economy, and citizens from any future attacks."
House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., introduced the Innovation Act Thursday, alongside several House members. HR-9 “contains commonsense reforms and makes the patent litigation process more transparent,” said Goodlatte in a statement. It said the bill is identical to HR-3309, which the House passed in 2013. It would require “plaintiffs to disclose who the owner of a patent is before litigation” and to “explain why they are suing a company in their court pleadings,” it said. CEA, the Computer & Communications Industry Association, Electronic Frontier Foundation, NAB, NCTA, Public Knowledge, TechNet, Software & Information Industry Association and Verizon released statements in support of the bill. The bill would weaken and devalue "the patents of all inventors working throughout America’s innovation economy,” said Adam Mossoff, senior scholar of the Center for the Protection of Intellectual Property at George Mason University, in a statement. “It broadly revises the entire American patent system by creating unprecedented hurdles for all owners of patented innovation who seek redress in court against infringers of their property rights.”
House Communications Subcommittee Vice Chairman Bob Latta, R-Ohio, lost the one Democratic backer for his legislation prohibiting FCC use of Communications Act Title II for the regulation of broadband. Latta introduced a similar bill in the last Congress and reintroduced it (HR-279) last month. Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., was listed as the lone Democratic co-sponsor in recent months. Rangel has vocally backed Title II approaches to net neutrality in the past week, signing a letter and making a statement backing FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s Title II proposal. Rangel is no longer listed as a supporter of HR-279, following our inquiry this week. A Rangel spokeswoman declined to comment.
House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., formally introduced the FCC Consolidated Reporting Act (HR-734) Wednesday. Its two co-sponsors are Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., and subcommittee ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif. The Communications Subcommittee unanimously cleared a version of the bill at a markup Wednesday. Walden had circulated it as a discussion draft early in the week (see 1502040036). Scalise and Eshoo had introduced a manager's amendment specifying the bill would not modify the FCC's authority over broadband, which the subcommittee approved.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., intends to reintroduce one, or all, of his three pieces of wireless-focused legislation, likely in early March, with wireless hearings possible, he told us at the Capitol Thursday. He began working with the current Commerce Committee leadership on them as far back as September (see 1409220044). Rubio introduced two of the three bills last year: the Wi-Fi Innovation Act (S-2505) with Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., pressing for FCC examination of the upper 5 GHz band, and the Wireless Innovation Act (S-2473), focused on reallocating of at least 200 MHz of government-held spectrum for private use, without any co-sponsors. Rubio prepared to issue a third bill -- on removing regulatory siting barriers for carriers -- in December with Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., but he told us then a procedural detail stalled that introduction (see 1412110036). That stall involved a question of “the committee they wanted to send it to, that’s one of the other issues, but I think we might have that resolved,” Rubio said Thursday. “I think they could all be done simultaneously, but I’m not sure yet. … Our goal is to make them bipartisan. That’s one of the things that’s holding us up still. But we’ll get there.” Rubio is working with Commerce to see if they could be introduced with “a time frame to get some hearings on the general issue but we haven’t worked that out yet,” he said. He pointed to congressional recess in February when predicting the legislative release will “probably have to be in early March.”
Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., introduced a telehealth bill Tuesday. HR-691 would “promote the provision of telehealth by establishing a Federal standard for telehealth, and for other purposes,” its longer title said. It was referred to the Commerce Committee, where Matsui is a member. Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Ohio, is the bill’s one co-sponsor. The bill text wasn't released by our deadline.
House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., will reintroduce the Innovation Act at a news conference Thursday at 10 a.m. in 2141 Rayburn, said a committee news release Wednesday. The bill, which passed the House in 2013, is designed to reform the “ever increasing problem of abusive patent litigation,” it said. Goodlatte will be joined by House Judiciary IP Subcommittee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Reps. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., Lamar Smith, R-Texas, and Peter DeFazio, D-Ore. A spokesman for House Judiciary Committee member Tom Marino, R-Pa., told us last week the bill is expected to be "virtually the same" as the 2013 version (HR-3309) (see 1501300052).
Legislation updating the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) was introduced in the House and Senate Wednesday as expected (see 1501230028). “The Lee-Leahy ECPA Amendments Act of 2015 would prohibit an electronic communications or remote computing service provider like Gmail or Facebook or Twitter, for example, from voluntarily disclosing the contents of customer emails or other communications,” said Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, on the Senate floor. Lee, who co-sponsored the Senate’s version of the bill along with Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said the bill requires a search warrant for all electronic communications, regardless of how many days had passed. The bill also “requires law enforcement agencies to promptly notify individuals when the government has obtained their emails from their service providers,” Leahy said on the Senate floor. Speedy passage of the ECPA update “would be a strong signal that Congress plans to move past the stalemates and partisanship of previous years and update the law to protect the privacy of Americans online,” said Center for Democracy & Technology Senior Policy Director Chris Calabrese. The House bill, the Email Privacy Act, was introduced by Kevin Yoder, R-Kan., and Jared Polis, D-Colo.
Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chairman Keith Ellison, D-Minn., and Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., ex-Congressional Black Caucus chairwoman, scored 28 additional signatories for the net neutrality letter they sent FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler Tuesday, as expected (see 1501290022). The House Democrats backed Communications Act Title II reclassification and said the net neutrality protections, applied to fixed and mobile, would help close the digital divide. Signatories included Reps. John Conyers, D-Mich.; John Lewis, D-Ga.; and Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif. Another signatory is Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., who also co-sponsors legislation (HR-279) from House Communications Subcommittee Vice Chairman Bob Latta, R-Ohio, to prevent the FCC from reclassifying broadband as a Title II service. A Rangel spokeswoman declined to comment on any contradiction in signing a letter backing the FCC’s Title II reclassification legislation while backing legislation preventing such reclassification. Rangel issued a statement Wednesday praising FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler's net neutrality proposal, which will involve Title II (see 1502040055). Free Press commended the letter.
The House Communications Subcommittee unanimously approved the FCC Consolidated Reporting Act Wednesday with a manager’s amendment saying the legislation wouldn't affect the agency’s authority. Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., unveiled the 11-page discussion draft earlier this week. House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., introduced the manager’s amendment specifying the limits of the legislation on agency authority. “First, our effort to consolidate reporting requirements, including the FCC’s ‘706’ Report does not in any way impact or alter the explicit grant of broadband authority that the court affirmed in the Verizon case last year,” Eshoo said at the markup. “Second, the amendment preserves the FCC’s obligation to examine how retransmission consent fees impact a consumer’s monthly bill.” The House unanimously passed the legislation in the last Congress but it never advanced in the Senate. Scalise said the amended language was not meant to “endorse” any FCC authority so much as to clarify that this bill would not weigh in on it. “As we did some reforms in the [Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization] bill, we wanted to make sure those didn’t get dropped out,” Scalise said of the amended language. “We ultimately will get this back on the House floor. … We do not need a report on the telegraph anymore.” Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., introduced the Senate companion bill (S-253) last month.