The leaders of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence urged Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to strengthen biotechnology export controls to preserve U.S. leadership in the critical sector.
President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed an executive order directing DOJ to establish rules blocking large-scale transfers of Americans’ personal data to entities in hostile nations.
Public television stations are focusing on streaming and pursuing advances in ATSC 3.0 and leadership transitions, speakers at America’s Public Television Stations Public Media Summit said Tuesday. “We are a system in transition in terms of technology and clearly in terms of leadership,” said Franz Joachim, CEO of New Mexico PBS and APTS board chair.
Former FEMA Administrator Pete Gaynor is citing the extensive Thursday outages on AT&T’s wireless network (see 2402220058) as a reason for Congress to approve the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act (HR-3413/S-1669). The measure would require a Transportation Department mandate for inclusion of AM radio technology in future vehicles. HR-3413/S-1669 continues to face obstacles in both chambers, though S-1669 lead GOP sponsor and Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and other supporters have eyed alternate routes to pass it this year (see 2401050065). “Last week’s cell outage and the revelation of Russia’s capacity to disrupt U.S. communications satellites should be a sobering wake-up call to Congress that it is time to pass” HR-3413/S-1669, Gaynor, the acting homeland security secretary during the final eight days of the Trump administration, wrote in an opinion piece for The Hill Saturday. “Here’s hoping Congress listens to the nation’s leading public safety experts and acts before the consequences of inaction become tragically significant.” AM radio “is often the only communication available to those in harm’s way,” especially in disasters when “there was no power and cell towers quickly became overwhelmed,” he said. “That is why it has always been the fail-safe communication system public safety leaders rely upon to keep the citizenry safe and informed -- and why FEMA has cautioned carmakers away from removing AM.” The auto industry “is opposing” HR-3413/S-1669, “arguing that new digital streaming services and cellphones can adequately keep the population informed,” Gaynor said: “However, millions of Americans have limited to no cell coverage on a good day and rely on AM radio stations for critical emergency information.”
George Kelemen, Industry Council for Emergency Response Technologies executive director, advised National Emergency Number Association members Monday to distinguish between the general push for Congress to appropriate $15 billion for next-generation 911 tech upgrades and existing legislative vehicles for allocating that funding when they meet this week with Capitol Hill offices. Backers of the House Commerce Committee-cleared Spectrum Auction Reauthorization Act (HR-3565), which would use some future auction proceeds to pay up to $14.8 billion for NG-911, haven't advanced the measure amid stalled negotiations on a broader spectrum legislative package (see 2312280044). Some offices, particularly Senate Republicans, are likely to say HR-3565 “‘is dead,’ and as a legislative vehicle it may very well be dead,” Kelemen said during NENA’s conference in Pentagon City, Virginia. “It’s still technically … a live bill,” and the hope is that lawmakers will “take all of the important parts of” the bill dealing with NG-911 and put them in "a different vehicle sometime this year and let’s hope they get it all done.” The NG-911 language in HR-3565, which mirrors an aborted spectrum legislative deal leaders of the House and Senate Commerce committees agreed to in December 2022 (see 2212190069), is “what we’re looking for and that’s what we’d like to see in whatever vehicle eventually moves,” Kelemen said. NENA members will also lobby lawmakers’ offices on the 911 Supporting Accurate Views of Emergency Services Act (HR-6319) and similar Enhancing First Response Act (S-3556), both of which would reclassify public safety call-takers and dispatchers as a protective service.
DOJ last week announced a set of new charges, arrests and forfeiture proceedings to mark the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The agency announced forfeiture actions involving $2.5 million in luxury properties, arrested two U.S. residents for helping a Russian violate sanctions, charged two sanctioned oligarchs with violating U.S. restrictions and more.
DOJ last week announced a set of new charges, arrests and forfeiture proceedings to mark the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The agency announced forfeiture actions involving $2.5 million in luxury properties, arrested two U.S. residents for helping a Russian violate sanctions, charged two sanctioned oligarchs with violating U.S. restrictions and more.
Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., and four other members of the congressionally mandated National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology visited Indiana on Feb. 21 to hold fact-finding meetings at Indiana University Indianapolis, Purdue University, drugmaker Eli Lilly and seed design company Inari, Young said on Feb. 23. The commission is developing recommendations to strengthen U.S. leadership in biotechnology, and it plans to include them in a report to Congress in December (see 2402020043).
Allowing large numbers of electric vehicles from Chinese companies assembled in Mexico would be an "extinction event," warned the Alliance for American Manufacturing, a nonprofit co-founded by large domestic manufacturers and the United Steelworkers union.
U.S., Japanese and Korean officials met in Tokyo this week to discuss export controls, including ways their three countries can better share information and align their restrictions, the Bureau of Industry and Security said. The meeting was the “first in-person meeting of its kind” focused on aligning export controls, BIS said, and the three sides agreed to “further align on Russia controls, collaborate on outreach to countries in Southeast Asia, and cooperate on controls for critical and emerging technologies.”