The American Cable Association, NTCA and WTA lauded the letter that Sens. Steve Daines, R-Mont., and Jon Tester, D-Mont., sent to the FCC Thursday urging a “delay” of its set-top box proceeding “until the FCC sufficiently studies the specific costs and impacts of the proposal on rural consumers and small providers.” Ten senators signed the letter, three Democrats and seven Republicans. They warned against putting “additional burdens” on small providers unable to cover the costs of “building the architecture” associated with any new rules. “This is the latest in a series of letters from Congress questioning the FCC’s set-top box proposal,” said WTA Vice President-Government Affairs Derrick Owens: “It’s not often you see content providers, distributors, economists, Republicans, and Democrats all aligned against a proposal from the FCC.” The senators “rightly point out the harm the FCC’s set-top box proposal would have on these consumers and their providers,” said American Cable Association President Matt Polka. The letter showcases “increasing concerns with regard to the threats to rural consumers and small companies that would arise if the FCC were to adopt its proposed video navigation technology mandate,” NTCA CEO Shirley Bloomfield said. Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., also sent the FCC a letter Thursday requesting clarity. “I share the Administration’s concern that the proposed licensing process to address consumer privacy ‘leaves important questions to be addressed,’” Leahy said. “The patchwork of state privacy laws and Federal Trade Commission enforcement alone are not adequate protections and would leave consumers guessing about which set of laws apply depending on where they live and from whom they purchase a navigation system.” The NPRM “must not leave consumers and programmers with fewer rights than they have today,” Leahy warned, also saying “reliance on existing copyright protections is insufficient.” The Consumer Video Choice Coalition, which backs the NPRM, called Leahy’s letter a positive sign: “We applaud and commend Senator Leahy for standing up for consumers who want to unlock the box and end the cable monopoly. We agree; choice and competition, as Congress directed the FCC to implement 20 years ago, has been a long time coming. Families could save $231 per year or more if the FCC takes action.”

Facebook didn't find any evidence of alleged bias against conservative political viewpoints in the website's trending news stories feature, but it said it "could not fully exclude the possibility of isolated improper actions or unintentional bias in the implementation of our guidelines and polices," Colin Stretch, the company's general counsel, said in a Monday blog post. A recent Gizmodo story kicked off the controversy against Facebook that also prompted Senate Commerce Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., to send a letter to the company inquiring about its practices (see 1605100032). But Thune faced some backlash from media and First Amendment experts, who said that government had no business getting involved (see 1605110048 and 1605190029). Thune, who met with Stretch a week ago, released the 12-page response from Facebook Monday and told reporters on Tuesday that he saw a "good outcome" from his inquiry. “I thought Facebook was very straightforward with their response,” Thune told reporters. “They took it seriously. They’ve adopted some changes in their procedures. Our whole issue was to make sure the way that their description of what they were doing actually matched what they were doing. And I think what this revealed was, there were some issues that they needed to address, and I think they’ve made some modifications. We’re happy with the way it came out. I think it gave greater clarity to consumers and created more transparency for Facebook and I think they made some corrective changes.” Thune didn't foreclose possible further assessment: "We’re open to more information if somebody came forward with it." But he has said that he saw no reason for regulatory action against Facebook (see 1605170068). In his post, Stretch said his company is making several changes to the "Trending Topics" feature, including refresher training for reviewers, more controls and oversight of the review team and clearer terms in its guidelines (see 1605120058).

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., touted big data and IT overhaul as key components involved in the developing of her caucus’ Innovation Agenda 2.0, a revamp of a decade-old policy platform that addresses broadband as one central component. “What’s exciting about it all is, no matter what subject you bring up, whether it’s the distribution of food, the education of our people, our transportation system, democratizing financial services, supporting entrepreneurs in every possible ways, the subject of IT is one of the answers, the subject of big data and how we deal with that is part of the answer,” Pelosi said Friday following a listening session held at tech incubator 1776 in Washington. “So you are all not only part of the answer, you are the future. Any ideas that you have, we want to hear, too.” Reps. Don Beyer, D-Va., Gerry Connolly, D-Va., and John Delaney, D-Md., joined Pelosi for the private listening session at 1776 before speaking about the initiative. The session included George Mason University President Angel Cabrera, 1776 co-founder Donna Harris, former White House Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra and Notarize co-founder Adam Pase, an aide told us. “Regulatory flexibility came up again and again,” Beyer said. “Creating safe spaces within regulation so people are allowed to fail and try new things. … The sense was that we would come away from this with a concrete agenda that we could move forward with at a national level with government but also within the private sector in ways that will really transform the economy.” Delaney outlined one priority as figuring out “how the government and the private sector, particularly the entrepreneurial sector” can work together better in the future. Pelosi stressed the importance of listening to the private sector before developing government ideas. “Let’s listen first before we act upon them,” Pelosi said, mentioning how much has changed since the agenda’s first development. “At the time, we didn’t talk about the cloud, there’s so many other things that have happened in that short period of time,” she said. “It’s time for Innovation Agenda 2.0, from listening to the private sector, to the nonprofit sector, how we can work together, public, private, nonprofit.” Several House Democrats have quietly participated in listening sessions around the country in recent months. The initiative is seen as likely to be influential for the future of the caucus’ telecom platform (see 1601260060).

CTA President Gary Shapiro urged the Senate to approve the Mobile Now spectrum bill (S-2555) by the unanimous consent hotline process, which Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., told us began May 11 (see 1605110036). “As the Senate moves to hotline the MOBILE NOW Act, we remind Senators that supporting this bill will add extra spectrum for commercial use, creating better mobile broadband for consumers and ensuring our wireless future,” Shapiro said in a statement. “This Act is critical to the success of our mobile networks, including the development of the next generation of cellular 5G technologies. Our mobile economy runs on spectrum, and Americans depend on having enough of this resource to stream Netflix, browse Snapchat and even operate drones and self-driving cars. Our demand for licensed and unlicensed spectrum will continue to grow exponentially, and we need more of both to keep all our devices online -- and support future innovations in the U.S.”

Markup of Senate legislation aimed at updating the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) was delayed until next week, Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said at Thursday's executive business meeting. The committee held a September hearing (see 1509160055) on the ECPA Amendments Act (S-356), and hasn't acted on it since. Meanwhile, the House passed its version 419-0 in April (see 1604270067), with some saying the pressure is on the Senate now to act quickly. "There's some feeling -- I don't know if it's members or some outside groups -- that since this bill passed the House ... that we should accept it," Grassley said at the meeting. "My judgment is that the Senate ought to do its due diligence on it and so that'll come out next week depending on what sort of bipartisan agreement we can get if there's going to be any changes. And I'm not anticipating any because I just don't know at this point." Ranking member Sen. Pat Leahy, D-Vt., who introduced the bill along with Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said the Senate legislation does have wide backing from the American Civil Liberties Union, Heritage Action for America, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "It's time we updated our laws to reflect the fact that the papers -- protected expressly, explicitly under the Fourth Amendment -- have moved over the last couple of centuries," said Lee during the meeting. "They've moved from the desk drawer and the file cabinet drawer to the server in the cloud. But that should not, in my opinion, lessen the privacy protections to which those personal documents are entitled and to which their owners are entitled." The House bill (HR-699) went through some significant changes -- "painful for many" -- but it resulted in broad-based, bipartisan consensus, Lee said, saying he hopes the Senate committee could achieve the same.

The Senate Judiciary Committee plans a Thursday markup for a bill that would update the 30-year-old Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) to better protect people's emails and other electronic data held in the cloud. The markup -- scheduled for 10 a.m. in 226 Dirksen -- comes three weeks after the House unanimously approved its version by 419-0 (see 1604270067). Similar to the House bill, the bipartisan ECPA Amendments Act (S-356) would require law enforcement agencies to obtain a warrant to access a suspect's electronic data in all cases. Currently, agencies can get warrantless access to communications stored for more than 180 days. Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Pat Leahy, D-Vt., introduced the bill in September, which had a hearing then (see 1509160055) and has 27 co-sponsors. Civil law enforcement agencies like the SEC and the FTC argue the proposed measures could impede their investigations. In a letter Wednesday to Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, SEC Chairwoman Mary Jo White and Commissioners Michael Piwowar and Kara Stein wrote that as a civil agency, it wouldn't be able to get criminal warrants as required by the legislation. The agency then wouldn't be able to obtain communications directly from an ISP and "the bills would provide a haven that is not available for paper material and allow wrongdoers to conceal their misdeeds from civil law enforcement," they wrote. They suggested the SEC and other civil law enforcement agencies could be required to get a court order or other judicial standard comparable to a criminal warrant. They also said affected users should be given notice and an opportunity to object in court.

Rep. Daniel Lipinski, D-Ill., has “heard from a number of stakeholders who have voiced concerns” about the FCC set-top box rulemaking, he told Chairman Tom Wheeler in a letter dated Tuesday. “The navigation device rule could open the door for third parties to monitor and market private data on customers’ viewing habits, perhaps even without their knowledge or consent,” Lipinski said. “Assuring the protection of the content and the viewers’ information should also require strong universal standards against cyber intrusion, which may now only apply to the distribution providers.” He also cited concerns about programming choice and the contract relationship between content providers and programming. He asked the agency to let him “know what the FCC has done and will do to promote the protection of consumer data from unwanted sale or theft, assure equitable protections from cyber intrusion and copyright theft, and to preserve the diversity of options from content creators.” The FCC has defended the proposal and suggested the NPRM won't cause such problems for consumers.

Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee used a Wednesday subcommittee hearing on ISP privacy rules to needle FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler on his set-top box rulemaking. “I have long supported efforts to promote meaningful competition in the set-top box market, knowing that customers will benefit from increased choice in how they interact with their cable programming,” Judiciary Committee ranking member Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said in his opening statement. “However, the benefit of increased choice should not come at the expense of important privacy protections that currently apply to set-top boxes, which receive extensive information about customers’ viewing habits. I am also tracking closely the impact the FCC’s proposal would have on content creators, to ensure that their rights are fully protected as third-party platforms make their content available. As the FCC opens up the market for set-top boxes, consumers and programmers should have the same rights and protections that they have today.” Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, also cited the set-top proposal during remarks at the hearing, saying, “I continue to be concerned about how the proposed set-top box rules would impact video content.”

The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism plans a May 18 hearing on the threat of ransomware and possible solutions. The 3 p.m. hearing will be in 226 Dirksen. No witnesses were listed. Ransomware is malware that prevents people from using their computers or data on the computers unless they pay money to free up the device or data. Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., recently said at a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing that ransomware is becoming a major threat and cited a March attack that crippled the systems of 10 Maryland hospitals in the MedStar Health network (see 1604190032).

Bipartisan legislation in the House and Senate that would make government data publicly accessible by default got a push Friday when 48 business, civil society and privacy groups and tech associations and companies sent letters to Capitol Hill calling for "quick action" on the bills. The broad alliance, including Amazon, CTA, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said the Open, Permanent, Electronic and Necessary (Open) Government Data Act would institutionalize the government's commitment to open data, maintaining the U.S.' leadership in this area. A policy of open government data by default, it said, "would continue to grow as the government unlocks and creates new data sets" and also spur businesses and other organizations to invest in innovative tools that would harness the data. HR-5051 was introduced by Reps. Blake Farenthold, R-Texas, and Derek Kilmer, D-Wash., while Sens. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, and Ben Sasse, R-Neb., introduced the Senate version (S-2852). Both were introduced April 26. The letters were addressed to House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, and ranking member Elijah Cummings, D-Md., and Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and ranking member Tom Carper, D-Del.