Congressional debate on government surveillance erupted on the House floor Thursday as lawmakers approved the USA Freedom Act, HR-3361 (http://1.usa.gov/1jaRSTr). Slightly more Democrats than Republicans opposed the bill in the 303-121 vote (http://1.usa.gov/1okfGK1). That legislation, introduced last fall and once seen by privacy advocates as the strongest measure against government collection of phone and electronic communications records, lost the backing of several of those organizations and the tech community this week as they scorned what is now judged a watered-down new version of the bill, backed by the White House as of Wednesday.

Comcast’s planned buy of Time Warner Cable has begun facing increased scrutiny by state regulatory bodies in the past week. Municipal law experts told us it’s unlikely public utility commissions will reject the the deal valued at $66 billion including debt (CD Feb 24 p16), and state staff in West Virginia (http://bit.ly/1m9Ktby) and Texas (http://bit.ly/RdQA3e) last week recommended approval. But three California consumer groups filed protests about the acquisition this week, challenging Comcast’s assertions the deal would bring public interest benefits. The protests, including one from The Utility Reform Network (TURN) that characterized Comcast’s claims of public benefits as “vague statements and platitudes,” were the first filed in the proceedings of nine states we examined.

California’s long-awaited guidance on its Do Not Track (DNT) law may spur an uptick in compliance -- minimal to this point -- and signal the start of enforcement actions for non-compliance, said lawyers we spoke with Wednesday. That’s when the California Attorney General’s (AG) office released the document, originally expected by the end of January (http://bit.ly/1m5CH2p).

AT&T’s promise to commit to struck-down net neutrality rules as a voluntary condition for approval of its proposed DirecTV acquisition (CD May 20 p1) reflects strong FCC power to reject telecom deals, said industry observers in interviews this week. Some wish the FCC didn’t have that much power, which they say is far beyond what Congress intended. Others speculated AT&T’s willingness to so quickly agree to the condition means it probably doesn’t have much of an impact on AT&T’s Internet practices either way. Comcast said earlier this year its commitment to the struck-down net neutrality rules -- a condition of its NBCUniversal transaction -- would automatically apply to its proposed acquisition of Time Warner Cable.

Odds of a nationwide emergency alert system test this year, the second-ever such exercise, likely depend on how effectively and quickly the FCC can address the aspects of the test location code, some EAS experts said in interviews. The Public Safety Bureau is preparing for a test to follow the first one in 2011 (CD May 2 p1). The FCC received comments about time discrepancies, the location code and other concerns, in response to a public notice that asked about equipment and operational issues from the test (CD Nov 12 p8). No parameters or date for another test has been set, an FCC official said.

The Telecommunications Industry Association, the Information Technology Industry Council and CEA jointly went on the record in favor of expanding in-flight mobile connectivity (IMC), including voice calls on commercial flight, in reply comments filed at the FCC. With the FCC’s comment period wrapped up, FCC officials say it’s hard to predict next steps on what has been one of the most controversial proposals under Chairman Tom Wheeler.

The Senate Homeland Security Committee approved the Department of Homeland Security Cybersecurity Workforce Recruitment and Retention Act Wednesday. Introduced Tuesday by committee Chairman Tom Carper, D-Del. (http://1.usa.gov/1sVoqq6), S-2354 would give the DHS secretary authority that to hire cybersecurity professionals with the same speed and set salary pay scales at the same levels allowed in the Department of Defense and NSA. Larry Zelvin, director of the DHS National Cybersecurity & Communications Integration Center (NCCIC), said at a separate House Homeland Security Committee hearing that DHS needs additional clarification on its legal role in cybersecurity matters to better implement some of its programs.

Stakeholders at an NTIA-backed facial recognition code of conduct discussion split over three major issues at a Tuesday meeting: whether a biometric template should count as encryption; whether the code should focus on prior consent or preventing harmful uses; and whether a code might infringe individuals’ First and Fourth Amendment rights. The discussions reflected the differing opinions among proponents of the wide-ranging, high-level principles submitted last week to the NTIA (CD May 20 p13).

The FCC should modernize its rules to exempt distributed antenna systems (DAS) from most agency environmental processing requirements and update historic preservation regulations to take account of DAS and small cells, Commissioner Ajit Pai said Tuesday at a PCIA conference in Orlando. Pai warned that too often wireless infrastructure doesn’t get the attention it deserves in policy discussions. The FCC posted Pai’s written comments (http://fcc.us/1i0uNmK).

The House Oversight Committee will view any federal agency that doesn’t begin requiring all cloud service providers (CSPs) to abide by the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) as an “ineligible player in the bidding process,” once a sufficient pool of vendors is FedRAMP compliant, said committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., Tuesday.