The technology industry is lauding reintroduction of the International Communications Privacy Act that would require law enforcement agencies to get a warrant for a person's communications stored by service providers (see 1707270043). ICPA also sets down rules on when U.S. law enforcement can access data that belongs to a foreigner located outside the U.S., including notifying the person's country of citizenship and giving it the opportunity to protect the rights of its citizen. BSA|The Software Alliance, the Computer & Communications Industry Association, CTA, the Information Technology Industry Council, Software & Information Industry Association and others sent a joint letter Thursday to Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Chris Coons, D-Del., supporting S-1671. The groups wrote that companies face problems with "complying with multiple, often conflicting, privacy laws and regulations" that undermine users' confidence in tech products and services while creating barriers for law enforcement investigations. Richard Salgado, Google director-Law Enforcement and Information Security, also blogged about the company's support for the bill, which is co-sponsored by Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev. The three senators introduced the bill last year but it never advanced out of committee.

A bipartisan group of senators introduced the Email Privacy Act that would require in all cases law enforcement agencies get a warrant to search Americans' emails and other communications stored by a third party. The bill, which the House unanimously passed earlier this year (see 1702070011), was introduced Thursday by Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Pat Leahy, D-Vt., both Judiciary Committee members who sponsored the same bill last year but withdrew it over a controversial amendment (see 1606090007). The new bill would update the three-decade-old Electronic Communications Privacy Act and would close a loophole that allows authorities to gain access to emails older than 180 days with just a subpoena. “Internet-era privacy reforms are long overdue" and the bill would "extend Fourth Amendment protections to emails and geolocation information stored in the cloud," said Computer & Communications Industry Association CEO Ed Black. TechFreedom President Berin Szoka said that without the ECPA update, states like California are stepping in. New America's Open Technology Institute and the Software & Information Industry Association also supported the bill. Sens. Steve Daines, R-Mont., Al Franken, D-Minn., Cory Gardner, R-Colo., Dean Heller. R-Nev., and Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., have also signed on.

House Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J. , lauded Wednesday's filing of the Viewer and Listener Protection Act (S-1632). That bill and Pallone's Viewer Protection Act (HR-3347) would establish funds within the Treasury Department to supplement the $1.75 billion allocated in the existing reimbursement fund for post-incentive auction repacking (see 1707200051 and 1707260059). The FCC estimated repacking expenses will total $2.12 billion, $365 million above the allocated funding (see 1707140070). “Congress needs to work quickly to ensure that no viewers lose their signal” post-repacking, Pallone said in a statement.

Christopher Wray's nomination as FBI director was advanced 20-0 by the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday. Democrats led by ranking member Dianne Feinstein of California said at the committee's executive business meeting they were satisfied and encouraged from Wray's testimony (see 1707120045 and 1706160029) and his written answers to their questions that he would be independent and free from political influence. Except for Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, only Democrats spoke at the 25-minute meeting. None talked about other issues like encryption or Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in relation to Wray. Typically, nominations being considered for the first time at the committee's executive business meeting are held over for one week, but Feinstein said she had no intention of holding Wray's nomination over.

Members of the European Parliament's Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) Committee will be in Washington this week to talk with U.S. government representatives about data protection, cybercrime and other issues, said a committee news release Friday. Led by LIBE Committee Chair Claude Moraes of the U.K., the delegation will meet with lawmakers and representatives from the departments of Commerce, Homeland Security, Justice, State and Treasury, as well as with the FTC, among others. The release said they would focus on the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield, digital privacy and electronic communications and cybercrime.

Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Ed Markey, D-Mass., filed their Commercial Flight Courtesy Act Wednesday in a bid to direct the Department of Transportation to issue a ban on voice cellphone use on commercial flights. The bill would allow passengers to use personal electronic devices in flight for other FAA-approved uses. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai circulated a proposed order in April that would terminate a controversial 2013 proceeding that potentially would have relaxed rules on cellphone discussions on commercial flights (see 1704100066). “Passengers should not have to suffer through the conversations of others, and flight crews should not be disrupted while performing their important safety and security duties,” Markey said in a news release. “I plan to fight for this legislation to be included in the FAA reauthorization bill," which the Senate Commerce Committee is set to mark up Thursday.

House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Mike Doyle, D-Pa., circulated a discussion draft version of his 5G Acceleration Act Wednesday, as expected (see 1706260064). The bill would require the FCC to identify 200 MHz of new spectrum below 7 GHz for auction by Jan. 1, 2023, and begin an auction of that spectrum by July 1, 2025. It would direct the FCC and NTIA to issue a report identifying another 300 MHz of spectrum below 7 GHz by Jan. 1 and would require the FCC to issue a notice of inquiry on making available spectrum below 12 GHz. “Getting additional spectrum on the market will help fuel the growth of technologies that are projected to expand dramatically in the next few years, such as the Internet of Things, Smart Cities, and 5G wireless broadband,” Doyle said in a news release. “This spectrum is also key to connecting rural America to the rest of the world -- as well as creating faster, cheaper options for underserved areas and populations.”

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said DOJ's Antitrust Division should review AT&T buying Time Warner “with careful attention” to the deal's “potential impact on consumers and on competition.” AT&T/TW “could have a significant, negative impact on competition and innovation in the video and broadband market, particularly for consumers in rural states like Maine,” Collins said in a Monday letter to acting Antitrust head Andrew Finch. Collins noted the deal's potential to “create the opportunity for AT&T to favor HBO in marketing and packaging of premium content to its customers, discriminating against competitors.” AT&T/TW also would “encourage and enable” AT&T and DirecTV to “raise content costs,” which would “have a significant impact on rural customers” in states where Dish Network is their “only satellite competitor,” Collins said. If Dish “were required to pay more for Time Warner programming, it would be forced to pass this cost along in the form of higher prices, risking the erosion of its customer base.” Al Franken, D-Minn., and 10 other senators last week pushed for DOJ to reject AT&T/TW (see 1706210062). President Donald Trump praised AT&T last week during a White House Office of Science and Technology Policy-led meeting despite criticizing the TW deal in the midst of the presidential campaign (see 1610240053 and 1706220054). AT&T believes the TW deal "is about giving consumers more choices, not less," a spokesman said. "Our DIRECTV NOW product is a small example of how we can provide consumers more control over the content they purchase, and how, where and when they view content. We have also detailed how the transaction will expand distribution and creative opportunities for diverse and independent voices."

The White House Office of American Innovation hopes the American Technology Council’s inaugural meeting Monday will help “unleash the creativity of the private sector to provide citizen services in a way that has never happened before,” said Director Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, before the meeting’s official start: “We will foster a new set of startups” and “be a global leader in the field making government more transparent and responsive to citizens' needs.” The ATC meeting, which was to have gone past our deadline, was to focus on its primary goal of working on federal IT modernization, but smaller working groups also would look at a range of other sector-specific issues like big data, cybersecurity, H1-B visas and tech recruitment, a White House spokesman said. “We certainly know the problems,” said White House Director-Strategic Initiatives Chris Liddell in public remarks. “We have some of the ideas about what the solutions are. But we really want to engage your minds and get the best of the private sector applied to these problems.” The White House confirmed that the ATC meeting would include: MasterCard CEO Ajay Banga, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, OpenGov CEO Zachary Bookman, Oracle co-CEO Safra Catz, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Kleiner Perkins Chairman John Doerr, VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger, Palantir CEO Alex Karp, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich, Akamai CEO Tom Leighton, SAP CEO Bill McDermott, Qualcomm CEO Steven Mollenkopf, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen, IBM CEO Ginni Rometty, Google parent Alphabet CEO Eric Schmidt, Accenture CEO Julie Sweet and Trump tech sector ally Peter Thiel.

Correction: The first name of Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., was published incorrectly (see 1706140024).