Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., urged the U.S. to strengthen its surveillance powers. “The U.S. government should implore American technology companies to cooperate with authorities so that we can better track terrorist activity and monitor terrorist communications as we face the increasing challenge of homegrown terrorists radicalized by little more than what they see on the Internet,” Rubio said in a Fox News column Tuesday. “This year, a new Republican majority in both houses of Congress will have to extend current authorities under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and I urge my colleagues to consider a permanent extension of the counterterrorism tools our intelligence community relies on to keep the American people safe.” Rubio’s urging follows the last Congress’s attempt to overhaul U.S. surveillance programs, with many privacy advocates critical of the government’s bulk collection of metadata. Rubio is debating a run for the White House in 2016.
Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., reintroduced one of two primary promised FCC process overhaul bills Monday -- S-253, which the longer title said is a “bill to amend the Communications Act of 1943 [sic] to consolidate the reporting obligations of the Federal Communications Commission in order to improve congressional oversight and reduce reporting burdens.” It has no co-sponsors listed and was referred to the Commerce Committee, where Heller is a member. A Republican Senate staffer confirmed to us that this is the FCC Consolidated Reporting Act and emphasized Heller's desire to strike a deal with Democrats to advance the bill. The staffer framed it as a simple bill about good governance and said it could have real traction in this Congress. The House approved a companion version of the bill last Congress, but it never advanced in the Senate. Heller didn't solicit co-sponsors, nor is the reporting bill intended to affect FCC authorities, the staffer said. Heller emphasized that same point to then-Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., at a markup session of different legislation last fall, referring to potential concern over how the bill affected Telecom Act Section 706. Heller told us in December he planned to consult with House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., early in the year about their plan to move forward with FCC overhaul legislation (see 1412240031). He and Walden have backed the FCC Consolidated Reporting Act and the FCC Process Reform Act. Walden spokespeople had no immediate comment about possible forthcoming House companion legislation. A spokeswoman for Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., told us in December that FCC reporting and process overhaul legislation would be given “due consideration” this year, citing bipartisan backing in the past for those bills and saying efficient FCC operations would be a committee priority. Heller hasn't issued any news release about S-253, nor has the bill text been released or posted online.
NetCompetition wants the FCC to release its draft net neutrality order Feb. 5, weeks ahead of the Feb. 26 agency vote where it’s expected to be made public. Scott Cleland, chairman of the ISP industry-funded group, backed three GOP lawmakers who pressed the agency last week to make the order public early (see 1501230061). “The FCC’s congressional overseers are right and wise to ask the FCC to make their proposed Open Internet Order available to the public three weeks prior to their scheduled February 26th vote,” Cleland said in a Friday statement.
Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) Senior Counsel Greg Nojeim is among witnesses set to testify Wednesday before the Senate Homeland Security Committee on cybersecurity information sharing, the committee said Friday. The hearing will occur weeks after the White House released a policy proposal that would center future cybersecurity information sharing efforts at the Department of Homeland Security (see 1501130059). Meanwhile, Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-Md., recently reintroduced the controversial Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (HR-234) (see 1501090035), which CDT has opposed in previous iterations. The Senate Homeland Security hearing will focus on current cybersecurity legislative proposals, their efficacy and the scope of current cybersecurity threats, the committee said. Other announced witnesses include FireEye Chief Security Strategist Richard Bejtlich, Marsh & McLennan General Counsel Peter Beshar, Microsoft Corporate Vice President-Trustworthy Computing Group Scott Charney and American Express Chief Information Officer Marc Gordon. The hearing is to begin at 2:30 p.m. in 342 Dirksen.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Rep. Todd Young, R-Ind., reintroduced the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act last week. S-226/HR-427 would force any regulation expected to have an annual economic impact of at least a $100 million to receive a vote before Congress prior to enactment. “If the Obama Administration wants to impose regulations that effectively operate as laws on U.S. citizens, it is important that those citizens are made aware of how the laws come to be,” Paul said in a statement. The bill has 31 co-sponsors in the Senate, all Republicans. The House bill’s 133 co-sponsors are also all Republicans. Paul posted the bill text.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced the bicameral Geolocational Privacy and Surveillance Act (S-237/HR-491) Thursday, they said in a news release. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, are the prime authors, and the bill is also backed by Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., and Reps. John Conyers, D-Mich., and Peter Welch, D-Vt. “Buying a smartphone shouldn’t be interpreted as giving the government a free pass to track your movements,” Wyden said in a statement. “GPS data can be a valuable tool for law enforcement, but our laws need to keep up with technology and set out exactly when and how the government can collect Americans’ electronic location data.” The bill would “provide specific and clear guidelines to ensure this valuable and effective technology is not abused,” Chaffetz said in a statement. The legislation “applies to all domestic law enforcement acquisitions of the geolocation information of individual Americans without their knowledge, including acquisitions from private companies and direct acquisitions through the use of ‘Stingrays’ and other devices,” the news release said. They posted the 20-page bill text online. In the House, the legislation was referred to the Intelligence and Judiciary committees, and in the Senate, it was referred to Judiciary.
More than 60 companies and organizations signed a letter to Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, ranking member Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and ranking member John Conyers, D-Mich., Thursday, urging them to support an update to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. The ECPA Amendments Act would “provide stronger protection to sensitive personal and proprietary communications stored in ‘the cloud,'” said the letter. Signers included Amazon, Google, the Software & Information Industry Association, TechFreedom, U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Yahoo. The legislation is expected to be introduced in the next few weeks and would require the government to obtain a warrant before requiring a service provider to “disclose the content of emails, texts or other private material stored by the service provider,” said the letter. It said the technology entities believe the requirement of a warrant grants “greater privacy protections” to the American public and creates a “more level playing field for technology.” The ECPA update didn't pass last Congress because authorities want to be able to access customer documents and communications without having to first get a warrant, said the letter. The organizations warned that by failing to pass the legislation again, Congress is sending a message that “privacy protections are lacking in law enforcement access to user information and that constitutional values are imperiled in a digital world.” ECPA update backers have called the initiative a multiyear effort (see 1407140033).
The Congressional Diversifying Technology Caucus will launch Monday at 4 p.m. in Room 200 Capitol Visitor Center, said a news release from Engine, a tech industry advocacy group, Friday. The caucus will work to "increase representation of women, minorities, and veterans in the tech sector, and the ability of these groups to access the good jobs that this industry creates,” it said. The caucus’ co-chairs will be announced at the event.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., insisted his draft net neutrality bill’s language wasn't intended to include any loopholes to allow for paid prioritization, despite protests from committee Democrats. Democrats in both chambers worry about the draft bill’s provision on specialized services, but Thune said during the final hour of his Commerce Committee hearing (see 1501210049) Wednesday evening that the language is drawn from FCC 2010 rules, White House statements and the proposal last year from former House Commerce Committee ranking member Henry Waxman, D-Calif. “I put out a draft, you’re all shooting at it, that’s fine,” Thune said. Several other Democrats, including Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey, Maria Cantwell of Washington and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, attacked the draft. Cantwell dismissed the specialized services exemption as “big enough to drive a truck through.” The Pacific Northwest is “not going to be quiet about this issue,” Cantwell said, tying it to commerce and worrying about the chilling effects. Booker defended Communications Act Title II reclassification by the FCC as the one path forward. The draft ”eviscerates a lot of the key elements that are put in place” in Section 202 of Title II, Booker said, grilling Multicultural, Media, Telecom & Internet Council Vice President Nicol Turner-Lee for her objections to Title II. The idea that legislation will lead to flexibility seems “counterintuitive” and “counterfactual,” Blumenthal said, concerned the draft would hurt FCC authority to address disparities and to stop anticompetitive behavior. Public Knowledge President Gene Kimmelman told Communications Subcommittee ranking member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, that the draft could be modified to the point of acceptability -- it’s “a matter of getting past all the titles and the characterizations and getting at the functions,” Kimmelman said. “This is your one shot at the apple. I don’t see Congress coming back to this.” Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., issued a statement Thursday blasting “utility-style regulations” and saying he plans to work with Thune and their House counterparts “to put forward a proposal that ensures that consumers continue to have access to high-speed Internet services and innovation unimpeded by disproportionate government intervention.” The hearing's "proceedings yielded optimism that there are members on both sides of the aisle who see and support a role for Congress to set a workable long term policy to protect an open Internet," Thune said in a statement Thursday.
Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., will chair the Judiciary Privacy Subcommittee, and Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., will be ranking member, the committee said Thursday. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, will now chair the Antitrust Subcommittee, with Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., its new ranking member. Two new GOP senators, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and David Perdue of Georgia, will sit on both subcommittees.