The House Science Committee advanced the National Institute for Standards and Technology Reauthorization Act Wednesday on a voice vote. HR-6229 would allocate $1.125 billion to NIST in FY 2019, down from almost $1.2 billion in FY 2018. The FY 2019 allocation includes almost $110 million for research activities on advanced communications, networks and scientific data systems and $103 million for the agency's cybersecurity and privacy work. HR-6229 would require NIST to “enhance and expand” its “guidance and assistance to Federal agencies to help” them effectively use the Cybersecurity Framework. NIST would expand “fundamental and applied research” to “address key questions relating the measurement of privacy, security, and vulnerability of software tools and communications networks.” House Science also advanced the American Space Situational Awareness and Facilitation of Entity Management Act (HR-6226) and the National Quantum Initiative Act (HR-6227). HR-6226 would make the Department of Commerce the civilian agency to provide civil space situational awareness and traffic coordination. It's “an important step to secure the United States as the leader in space traffic management and improves the safety of all space operations,” said committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas. Commercial satellites in space are "predicted to grow from 1,300 active satellites today to more than 10,000 in the next few years," he said: "Now is the time to solidify” Commerce's role in developing “space traffic standards and guidelines.” HR-6227 would direct the Office of Science and Technology Policy to coordinate a program to accelerate quantum R&D for economic and national security.
Small-business community representatives warned the House Small Business Committee Wednesday about what they feel is the threat Chinese telecom equipment manufacturer ZTE poses. President Donald Trump said he will support passage of the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act (HR-4311/S-2098) to curb foreign companies' ability to violate U.S. companies' IP rights, instead of invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The additional ZTE criticism follows more than a month of congressional debate about the Trump-led push to lift a Department of Commerce-imposed ban on U.S. companies selling telecom software and equipment to ZTE (see 1806260031). The Senate voted 85-10 to pass a version of the FY 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (HR-5515) that would reinstate the ZTE ban (see 1806190051). “Small businesses have become top targets for nefarious state-backed actors because they tend to be the softest targets,” said House Small Business Chairman Steve Chabot, R-Ohio. “They have fewer resources to manage their IT systems and respond to cybersecurity incidents, and they often lack the technical knowledge needed to assess the ever-evolving threats.” The Chinese company is “seeking to disrupt manufacturing not only through the espionage” of IP “but also the destruction of the U.S. supply chain by crippling them both financially and through attacks,” said TechSolve CEO David Linger. “For those of us that work with small manufacturers who have teetered on the brink of closing their doors due to cyber-attacks, their cyber-crimes are personal, real, and distressing.” ZTE “has proven to be a particularly bad actor, flouting U.S. export control laws and deceiving regulators,” said IronNet Cybersecurity President Matthew Olsen. Small businesses can't effectively “compete against nation-state attacks, aggressive, unrelenting international espionage, and theft of trade secrets,” said George Mason University Law School National Security Institute Visiting Fellow Andy Keiser. “Those are exactly the challenges presented by ZTE and Huawei.” HR-4311/S-2098 “will enhance our ability to protect the United States from new and evolving threats posed by foreign investment while also sustaining the strong, open investment environment to which our country is committed and which benefits our economy and our people,” Trump said. It would expand the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States' scope to probe more investments, including in "critical" technology or infrastructure companies (see 1804260029).
Senate GOP leaders are aiming to confirm FCC nominee Geoffrey Starks and Commissioner Brendan Carr to a second full term this week via unanimous consent, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters Wednesday. The committee advanced Starks' nomination on a voice vote. Senate confirmation of Starks this week is seen possible, in line with expectations Thune was aiming to fast-track the nominee (see 1806200055). Starks would succeed former Mignon Clyburn, who left the commission earlier this month (see 1806070041). Starks would have a term ending in 2022, and Carr's additional five-year term would end in 2023.
Two groups of senators who criticized the President Donald Trump administration for lifting the Department of Commerce's ban on U.S. companies selling telecom software and equipment to ZTE are urging administration officials to address the controversy. Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner, R-Va., and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., called on Trump Tuesday to reinstate the ZTE ban. Rubio was among sponsors of language attached to the Senate-passed version of the FY 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (HR-5515) that would reverse Commerce's decision and replace it with alternative concessions the company agreed to earlier this month (see 1806120001). Senators voted 85-10 June 18 to pass HR-5515 with the ZTE reversal provision intact, despite Trump's push against it (see 1806200077).
The draft NTIA Reauthorization Act received a sometimes lukewarm reception from some House Communications Subcommittee Democrats during a Tuesday hearing. Some House Communications Republicans and two former administrators who testified urged including language elevating the administrator role to a subcabinet-level position. Subcommittee Chairman Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and others promoted the legislation's potential as a driver of broadband deployment. It would allocate NTIA $50.8 million a year for FYs 2019-2021, with other provisions (see 1806200038).
The draft NTIA Reauthorization Act at first blush is a largely uncontroversial, but its future prospects and final form may depend partly on whether it gets bipartisan support, communications sector lobbyists told us. A Tuesday House Communications Subcommittee hearing on the draft may give a better sense of where Democrats stand, lawmakers and lobbyists said. The legislation would allocate NTIA $50.8 million a year for FYs 2019-2021 (see 1806200038). The hearing begins at 1:15 p.m. in 2322 Rayburn.
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted to advance two Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board nominees and held over a markup of the Music Modernization Act music licensing legislative package (S-2823). Senate Judiciary advanced PCLOB nominees Edward Felten and Jane Nitze on voice votes Thursday. A markup of S-2823 will happen next week, as expected (see 1805250036), Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, told reporters.
The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 Thursday in South Dakota v. Wayfair that states can collect sales tax from out-of-state retailers, effectively reversing its earlier 1992 precedent in Quill v. North Dakota. Justice Anthony Kennedy led the opinion in favor of South Dakota, joined by Justices Samuel Alito, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas. Chief Justice John Roberts dissented along with Justices Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor. Several tech sector stakeholders told us they now believe it's critical for Congress to pass legislation to mitigate the effects. Oral argument was in April (see 1804170062).
A Wednesday meeting of President Donald Trump, Republican lawmakers and other administration officials ended without any commitment to kill language in the Senate-passed version of the FY 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (HR-5515) that would reinstate a recently lifted Department of Commerce ban on U.S. companies selling telecom software and equipment to ZTE, said Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, and others. The Senate voted 85-10 Monday to pass HR-5515 with the ZTE provision intact, despite Trump's push to weaken the language or kill it completely (see 1806190051). Trump “wanted to make sure the negotiation that [Secretary of Commerce Wilbur] Ross had with the Chinese over the ZTE matter was understood and it was respected, and particularly given the fact the president is negotiating with China over things like North Korea,” Cornyn told reporters. “I think there’s a path forward to address the president’s concerns as well as national security.” Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., a critic of the bid to reinstate the ban, said the meeting ended with participants making “serious strides in solving the ZTE issues.” Trump “should not have his hands tied as he engages in major negotiations dealing with trade and the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” Perdue said in a statement.
There's room for Capitol Hill to enact national privacy legislation that wouldn't stifle the tech sector's ability to innovate or reduce profitability, industry experts said during a Tuesday evening Phoenix Center event. Lawmakers have been searching for a way forward on an overarching privacy bill amid the fallout over the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data breach, which drew pushes for bills ranging from the Balancing the Rights of Web Surfers Equally and Responsibly (Browser) Act (HR-2520) to a privacy bill of rights (see 1804100054, 1804130057, 1805110050 and 1806190077).