Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Gary Peters, D-Mich., hopes soon to introduce legislation with ranking member Rob Portman, R-Ohio, that would require critical infrastructure owners and operators to report “significant” cyberattacks, Peters said during a hearing Thursday. The bill would require entities to report incidents to the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Accountability on who’s in charge will be an important element, said Portman: “Cyber reporting legislation might better inform that strategy. I think we can get that right. I think we can get a bipartisan product.” Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., said previously he and co-authors of his own legislation were in conversations with Peters and Portman (see 2108020033). It’s long past time to pass cyber incident reporting legislation, testified CISA Director Jen Easterly: The bill would allow CISA to aid victims directly and share information across sectors. The information would be “profoundly useful” for determining strategy and informing investments, said National Cyber Director Chris Inglis. OMB Federal Chief Information Security Officer Christopher DeRusha said it’s important to have a universal standard rather than a state patchwork.
The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced by voice vote Thursday legislation that would strengthen the right of state attorneys general to litigate antitrust cases in courts of their choosing. S-1787, the State Antitrust Enforcement Venue Act (see 2109150054), would strengthen AG discretion over defendants seeking to move cases to preferred venues. The House Judiciary Committee in June passed companion legislation from House Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman David Cicilline, D-R.I., and ranking member Ken Buck, R-Colo. (see 2106240071). The bill “will allow for more efficient and effective antitrust enforcement by state attorneys general, which is good for competition and consumers,” said Senate Antitrust Subcommittee Chair Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., in a statement. The bill “will give a much-needed boost to State antitrust enforcement actions, and will respect States’ sovereignty in their efforts to protect their citizens from abusive monopolists,” said ranking member Mike Lee, R-Utah, who co-authored the plan.
Senate legislation introduced Thursday would require agencies to publish congressionally mandated reports. Introduced by Senate Homeland Security Committee ranking member Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Senate Rules Committee Chair Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., the Access to Congressionally Mandated Reports Act would require agencies to submit the reports to the Government Publishing Office “after each agency redacts information that would not be publicly disclosable under the Freedom of Information Act.” The GPO would publish the documents. Homeland Security Committee Chairman Gary Peters, D-Mich., and Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., co-sponsored the legislation. A similar bill (HR-2485) passed the House on July 26.
The FCC “should fully describe available public comment data, including what data elements mean and any limitations, to external users of the data,” GAO recommended Thursday. Its report urged nine other federal entities better describe collected comment data. House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., was among lawmakers who sought the review. It partly focused on FCC comment processes ahead of its 2017 vote to rescind 2015 net neutrality rules (see 1710130052). GAO said last year the FCC made progress addressing electronic comment filing system (ECFS) security vulnerabilities and needs to do more (see 2004240029). ECFS in 2017 “allowed commenters to use a file-sharing website to submit bulk files of comments using a specific template,” GAO said now. The agency “maintained a submission time stamp, the email address entered by the submitter, and the file name of the attachment submitted.” That “does not conclusively identify the source of unconfirmed comments,” the report said. The FCC’s online portal doesn’t “describe potential limitations of the shared comment data,” including “variation in available data, accuracy of the data, and their importance to agencies’ rulemaking decisions,” GAO said. “Information on these limitations can be important to help external users make informed decisions.” The commission has “specific plans to improve the ways that ECFS describes the information,” via ongoing “redevelopment” (see 1909160019), commented Managing Director Mark Stephens. “The rebuilt system” will include “rewritten” user help information that will “explicitly” define “the data elements that are maintained.” The commission is rewriting its ECFS user guide to “give plain-English instruction on how to use” the interface “and ensure that the data fields are clearly described,” Stephens said. Senate Homeland Security Committee ranking member Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., welcomed the audit. “Regulations.gov and other federal agency websites used to collect comments should be secure and easy to navigate, and they should clearly inform commenters how they will use their data,” Portman said. “People who abuse the comment process by trying to overwhelm the systems or filing comments using stolen identities should be held accountable. I hope federal agencies will adopt the GAO’s recommendations and work to improve the online commenting experience.” It’s “deeply troubling that GAO’s report confirms our earlier findings that federal agencies’ websites that collect public comments about proposed regulations are susceptible to abuse by bad actors,” Carper said. “We live in a time where disinformation spreads rapidly online and, as elected officials, we have a critical responsibility to ensure transparency and integrity.”
Half of the Senate Democratic caucus, including Majority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois and Communications Subcommittee Chairman Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico, pressed President Joe Biden Wednesday to renominate acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and designate her as permanent chair “as quickly as possible.” Democrats’ frustration with the Biden administration is growing over delay in picking nominees for two Democratic commission seats (see 2109220049). “It is absolutely essential that there are trusted, qualified appointees leading” agencies charged with distributing $65 billion in broadband money included in the Senate-passed Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (HR-3684) and additional funding included in COVID-19 aid measures, the 25 senators wrote Biden. “Further delay simply puts at risk the major broadband goals that we share and that Congress has worked hard to advance as part of your administration’s agenda.” Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia led the letter, which has support from Senate Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee Chairman Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and all but three Democratic Commerce Committee members -- Chair Maria Cantwell of Washington, Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Raphael Warnock of Georgia. “There is no better qualified or more competent person” to be permanent FCC chair right now than Rosenworcel, the senators said. “We have long experience working with her and her team, and she has already shown an ability to steer the FCC through these extraordinary and difficult times. Importantly, we believe” Rosenworcel “will face few obstacles to her confirmation. She has previously been approved on a bipartisan basis, and was unanimously approved by the Senate in 2012. It will take months for a different nominee to move through the process, hire staff and begin implementing an agenda, leading to indecision and gridlock at the very time decisiveness is most critical.” The White House and FCC didn’t comment Thursday.
The House approved on a voice vote Wednesday an en bloc amendment to the FY 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (HR-4350) that includes the 911 Supporting Accurate Views of Emergency Services Act (see 2109210083). HR-2351 would change classification of public safety call-takers and dispatchers to "protective service.” Rep. Norma Torres, D-Calif., sought to attach HR-2351’s text to HR-4350. The en bloc amendment also included a proposal from Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., to require the State Department to report to Congress on the “national security implications” of open radio access networks. An en bloc amendment up for House consideration includes language from Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Mich., to attach his Promoting U.S. Wireless Leadership Act (HR-3003). Another amendments package includes text from Rep. Tom Malinowski, D-N.J., to prohibit federal agencies from requiring or supporting tech companies’ efforts to add back doors or other security vulnerabilities. Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Ariz., will get a vote on her proposal for a report on feasibility of an interagency U.S.-Taiwan working group to cooperate on chip supply issues.
Senators voted along party lines to advance to the floor FTC Commissioner Rohit Chopra’s nomination to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (see 2109130029). The Banking Committee recorded a tied vote in March for advancing Chopra to the floor. The Senate voted 49-48 Tuesday to discharge his nomination from the committee. Richard Burr, R-N.C.; Mike Rounds, R-N.D.; and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., didn’t vote. Chopra “has the expertise and track record to lead an agency dedicated to protecting working families and all consumers,” said Banking Chairman Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio. Without a replacement, Chopra's leaving the FTC would mean the commission is politically split 2-2.
Congress should “raise or suspend” the debt limit as it has done about 80 times since 1960 “and protect the full faith and credit” of the U.S., five tech associations wrote the House and Senate leadership Monday. Defaulting on the government’s obligations “could undermine the U.S. dollar’s role as the world’s reserve currency, spark an economic downturn, increase future deficits, and threaten the status of Treasury bonds as the world’s safest asset,” said the Information Technology Industry Council, Internet Association, Semi, Semiconductor Industry Association and TechNet: “Even the threat of default could cause a further downgrade in the U.S. credit rating, which would not only imperil the fragile economic recovery, but raise debt costs for millions of businesses and consumers.”
The FBI needs to provide a complete briefing to the Senate Homeland Security Committee on why the agency held back the digital key associated with the Kaseya cyberattack (see 2109010005), Chairman Gary Peters, D-Mich., said during a hearing Tuesday. Director Christopher Wray said the bureau will work with the committee to provide more information, but some of the communication should be done in a classified setting. Peters questioned why the FBI reportedly held back the digital key for unlocking computers of hundreds of businesses and organizations subject to the Kaseya attack. He asked why the FBI didn’t share the key sooner, which might have helped avoid some recovery costs. Wray said the investigation is ongoing so he’s limited in what he can say, but generally, encryption keys require a lot of testing and validation: “That takes time.” Decisions are made jointly with agencies like the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said Wray. Ranking member Rob Portman, Ohio, agreed with the “necessity” for the committee to have all information “on the cyber front.”
House Ways and Means Committee Democrats’ decision to include a 30% tax credit for municipal, state and tribal government-owned broadband networks’ operations (see 2109140063) in the Build Back Better Act budget reconciliation package “is just the latest example of big government picking market winners and losers,” FreedomWorks President Adam Brandon said Tuesday. “Government-owned corporations rarely produce the results they promise” and “this is particularly true of highly competitive and innovative industries like broadband.” President Joe Biden “should take a page from the Trump administration’s playbook and incentivize private markets to bridge the digital divide rather than foolishly continuing to throw more of the taxpayers’ money at the problem,” Brandon said. The American Action Forum and Free State Foundation are among others that also criticized the tax credit proposal.