Amir Nasr

Sen Thune Not Waiting for FCC to Act Before Drafting Net Neutrality Bill

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD) is pushing forward with plans to draft legislation that would codify network neutrality principles into law, even if the Federal Communications Commission hasn’t taken action to roll back the agency’s 2015 Open Internet order. “Sen Thune is open to immediately working with his colleagues on legislation if there is a serious readiness on the other side of the aisle to come to the table,” said Commerce Committee spokesman Frederick Hill. “To date, Democrats haven’t been quite ready to sit down.” At the same time, Hill added that action from the FCC action could lead to “new engagement” from Democrats in a legislative effort, and Chairman Thune is “all for that.” The remarks follow recent comments from House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), who said that she wanted to the let the FCC make the first move on net neutrality before legislating.

Rep Goodlatte: Electronic Privacy, Foreign Intelligence on Judiciary Agenda

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) said the panel’s top tech priorities consist of updating a 1986 electronic privacy law and reauthorizing a provision in the foreign intelligence statute that allows US spies to intercept communications abroad.

The Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which was authored long before the widespread use of email and social media, doesn’t require law enforcement agencies to obtain a warrant before inspecting emails stored for more than 180 days. That standard is based on a 1980s understanding of electronic messaging that assumed anything stored for that period of time has been abandoned. “This law is outdated and contains insufficient privacy protections for Americans’ email communications in today’s digital age,” Goodlatte said. Rep Kevin Yoder (R-KS) introduced a measure in Dec that would require law enforcement to obtain a warrant before investigating an individual’s online communications that have been stored in excess of 180 days or kept in a cloud storage service.

What Commerce Dept Nominee Ross Said About Tech Policy During Confirmation Hearing

President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, testified before the Senate Commerce Committee, touching on tech subjects ranging from wireless spectrum to broadband deployment. The Commerce Department has broad responsibilities in the tech field, including jurisdiction over the federal government’s airwaves, the US Patent and Trademark Office and national science labs. Most notably, Ross said he would push to get government agencies to free up unused spectrum, a longstanding goal of Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD). “We need more spectrum in the private sector, and I will try my best to help convince those government agencies that have spectrum and don’t really need it to permit it to be commercialized,” he told the committee.

Ross also said he would work to balance privacy protections and data protectionism in data-transfer agreements such as the EU-US Privacy Shield pact. Later, he said there would need to be a balance between national security and freeing up airwaves. He also said government airwaves could “help extend broadband to more rural communities and other segments that are underserved.” Transition of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority will remain in place, Ross said. “As I understand it, there is no real alternative on the table to the ICANN situation. So, for the moment, there’s nothing else to consider,” Ross said. Sen Ted Cruz (R-TX), who was opposed to the transfer of power, pressed Ross further on the issue. Ross said that if he found “a realistic alternative,” he would explore it.

Data-Sharing With EU Could Change Under New Commerce Secretary

The Secretary of Commerce in the next administration will be responsible for a data-sharing agreement with the European Union that is worth billions to the US tech industry. President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for that post, Wilbur Ross, said he would uphold the deal, but he hinted that it might change in the future. There should be a “balance” between data protectionism and privacy, he said.

His comments at his confirmation hearing came the same day that an electronic privacy group requested that the next administration strengthen the privacy protections in the deal, fearing that US intelligence activities will hinder the free flow of data between the two continents. The United States currently has an agreement with the EU, dubbed “Privacy Shield,” that allows US-based businesses to send data to Europe without fear of running afoul of stronger European privacy laws. Privacy concerns continue to loom over it, however. At his hearing before that committee, Ross said he would commit to keeping Privacy Shield intact because it already exists and then added a cryptic comment about the future of balancing privacy and data localization laws.

Chairman Thune Throws in Towel on Commissioner Rosenworcel Vote Despite Wheeler’s Pledge to Resign

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD) has essentially given up on a floor vote for Federal Communications Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel’s confirmation for a second term.

He said that a vote before her term ends on Dec. 31 is extremely unlikely despite FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s conditional pledge to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) to step down immediately if it would expedite her reconfirmation. Chairman Wheeler is required by law to step down as chairman of the commission when President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20, but his term as a commissioner doesn’t end until June 2018. Before this week, he hadn’t been specific about his plans under the next administration. But his promise to stop down is being viewed as too little, too late. “If in fact he has made those representations, we’re just finding out about them now,” Chairman Thune said, adding that it seems Chairman Wheeler “wasn’t in any hurry to get out of there.” “My sense is that we’re kind of up against the clock now,” Chairman Thune said. “And it’s going to be very hard, even if Wheeler was agreeable to stepping down, to be able to get all this done between now and the time we go out.” “Even if they clear this, this is going to take a cloture vote,” Chairman Thune said, referring to a procedural maneuver that would bypass the objection of a senator or senators and takes several days. “A lot of our members are probably going to object to this.”

Without Senate confirmation for a second term, Rosenworcel’s tenure at the agency will conclude at the end of December. Chairman Thune said it’s still possible Commissioner Rosenworcel could be nominated again in January 2017, perhaps as a part of a deal to reconfirm Republican FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai.

Rep Blackburn Outlines Path to Network Neutrality Reversal, Communications Act Rewrite

Rolling back network neutrality rules and replacing them with legislation that establishes the “rules of the road” for internet service providers will be a priority for House Republicans in 2017, Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) said.

Rep. Blackburn, a member of President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team and a candidate to lead the House Commerce Committee’s Communications and Technology Subcommittee, said Republicans are intent on reversing Obama-era net neutrality rules that reclassified broadband companies as common carriers under the 1934 Communications Act. That move allowed the Federal Communications Commission to regulate internet service providers the same way as traditional phone companies. “I think you will see us address a net neutrality fix early in the next Congress,” Rep Blackburn told an audience at a Free State Foundation event. “I also believe you are going to see a legislative solution as opposed to a regulatory solution for this issue.” Rep Blackburn added, “A legislative fix is going to give you in the industry the certainty that you need so that you know what the rules of the road are for standards for internet conduct.”

Confirmation Prospects for FCC’s Rosenworcel Remain Cloudy

Confirmation prospects for Democratic Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel of the Federal Communications Commission, who’s awaiting a Senate vote for a second term, aren’t dead yet, apparently. “I’ve felt for some time we were gonna get that resolved, I still hope that we will,” Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD) said. Earlier, he told reporters who were asking about Commissioner Rosenworcel,”It’s a leader decision about when that would come to the floor. …But you know we’re in a whole new world now. We’re going to have a new FCC starting next year.”

The prospect of a Trump Administration complicates pending confirmations, but not necessarily in a bad way for Commissioner Rosenworcel. “Now that we’ve got a new administration, we’ll have a new FCC. They’ll be looking at how and when to proceed with her nomination,” Chairman Thune said. Democratic lawmakers say Commissioner Rosenworcel is owed a confirmation vote based on a promise from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). In December 2014, he promised Senate Democrats that if they voted to confirm Republican FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly, the GOP would in turn move quickly to confirm Commissioner Rosenworcel at the beginning of the 114th Congress in 2015. That hasn’t happened.

CTIA Wants Small ISPs Permanently Exempt From Net Neutrality Transparency Rules

CTIA - The Wireless Association called on the Federal Communications Commission to permanently exempt small businesses from transparency rules included in the agency’s 2015 network neutrality rules, with the current exemption scheduled to expire on Dec. 15.

“The enhanced transparency rules are unnecessary and unduly burdensome for all broadband providers, and particularly burdensome for smaller providers, many of which lack the monetary and/or staff resources to comply with complex disclosure requirements that will not provide any benefit to smaller providers’ customers,” wrote Krista L. Witanowski, assistant vice president of regulatory affairs at CTIA, in a filing with the FCC. “CTIA urges the Commission to permanently exempt small businesses from the enhanced transparency requirements and adopt a more realistic definition of the small business entities to which the exemption would apply.” The Washington-based organization represents companies such as AT&T and Verizon.

How the Broadband Industry Could Challenge FCC’s Privacy Rules

The Federal Communications Commission is expected to pass privacy rules. Once approved, the rules would require explicit consent from customers before companies can use many forms of data for marketing purposes. The agency is permitted to regulate internet service providers as it does phone companies as a result of a 2015 network neutrality rule that reclassified ISPs as common carriers.

While the net neutrality rule gives the regulator solid legal standing to issue rules for ISPs, industry giants such as AT&T have argued that the privacy rules still might not align with the FCC’s authority to regulate privacy under the 1996 Telecommunications Act. If broadband providers decide to sue, that argument will likely be the one that they use, an industry source said. The law prohibits phone carries from using a customer’s “proprietary” information, which includes the location, time, date, duration of phone calls, the type of network a consumer subscribes to, as well as any other information that a provider could obtain from a customer’s phone bill. In a regulatory filing with the FCC, AT&T argued data such as web browsing and app usage can’t be proprietary if other web entities have access to it.

Fight Over FCC Privacy Rule Ramps Up Ahead of Vote

The Federal Communications Commission’s plan to designate web browsing and app usage as “sensitive” has privacy advocates cheering and the industry rushing to lobby the agency to tweak the final rule ahead of next week’s vote. Sen Ed Markey (D-MA), a privacy advocate, told reporters that “every click Americans make online paints a detailed picture of their lives. … Consumers should have the power to stop ISPs from collecting and using their browsing information, app usage data and other sensitive information without their express consent.”

Opponents argue that the FCC should avoid adding new categories to the existing Federal Trade Commission definition of “sensitive” data. “The proposal to include web browsing and apps usage data as sensitive information would be especially counterproductive,” the industry officials said in their filing. They added that consumers “benefit” from online advertising and personalized content that the use of web browsing history and apps usage information allows. On the other side of the debate, advocacy groups including Public Knowledge and the Center for Democracy and Technology met with FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn’s office to urge the agency to make the definition of sensitive data “as expansive as possible,” according to a filing.

Yahoo Surveillance Report Rekindles FISA Fight

Privacy advocates are hitting hard at the government process that likely led Yahoo Inc. to create software and scan all of its users’ incoming e-mails on behalf of US intelligence agencies. The reaction was immediate to a report that said a classified government order directed the Internet company to scan hundreds of millions of Yahoo Mail accounts searching for a specific “set of characters.” Advocates agree that many questions remain unanswered about the case.

Still, the Washington (DC) backlash coalesces around a foreign surveillance law, set to expire at the end of 2017, that privacy-minded lawmakers want to change. Privacy advocates are zeroing in on a controversial provision of the 2008 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Amendments Act as the likely avenue that brought forth the government order. Provisions in the law allow US intelligence officials to request consumer data from phone and Internet firms to spy on targets believed to be outside the US. Even before the Yahoo report, lawmakers and civil liberties advocates were pushing for changes to that provision, Section 702. They say US intelligence agencies abuse it, conducting mass surveillance on Americans that shouldn’t be targeted in the first place. In the wake of the Yahoo news, these advocates say the administration now has a duty at least to tell people if it is conducting mass searches.

FCC Faces Tough Timeline Over the Next Few Months

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler has an ambitious agenda ahead of him as the agency eyes rules in three telecommunications areas that face staunch opposition from large factions of the private sector. Chairman Wheeler wants the FCC to set price caps on business data services, open the cable set-top box marketplace, and implement privacy regulations on Internet service providers. He told reporters he aims to complete all those items before the end of the year. The stars will have to align perfectly for this to happen.

Tech Sparks Global Consensus, White House Official Says

David Edelman, special assistant to the president for economic and technology policy at the National Economic Council, said technology areas like cybersecurity, privacy, and network neutrality are winners in the international community.

Edelman said that the core principles behind the net neutrality rules — ones that some industry lobbyists and Republicans fought so vehemently in the United States — were widely adopted in other major economies. “Something was happening under our noses that I think wasn’t truly recognized in an international forum until this G20 [summit],” Edelman said. “The vast majority of G20 economies already had open internet protection on the books.” Republicans and some industry executives say the rules are an overreach that will squelch broadband innovation. Edelman disagrees. “As it turns out, the principles that were so controversial domestically were ones that had surprising international consensus,” he said, noting that Brazil, India and the European Union were all in the process of drafting open internet rules as policymakers in the United States debated the validity of the rules put forward by the Federal Communications Commission. “This is a remarkable evolution in a debate that reflected and became a part of the global consensus, certainly well before any would have said the issue is resolved domestically,” he added. The issue of privacy also reflects an area where, despite differences, the U.S. has been able to strike key agreements with allies because of domestic policy, Edelman said.

Roles of FTC, FCC Are Front and Center in Privacy Debate

The Federal Communications Commission’s proposed privacy rules for Internet service providers have ruffled the feathers in the tech industry since the agency passed the proposal in March. A key question as the agency moves forward to a final rule will be how the FCC’s entrance into privacy rules would interfere (or coexist) with the regime currently enforced by the Federal Trade Commission.

The details will come into focus in the coming weeks, as FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler wants to finalize the proposal by the end of 2016. “It’s a turf war. Let’s be honest. It’s a turf war,” said Tim Sparapani, senior policy counsel at CALinnovates, a technology advocacy coalition. “We really need a do-over.” Sparapani was speaking at a privacy briefing Tuesday sponsored by CALinnovates. Just hours earlier in the same building on Capitol Hill, all three commissioners of the FTC testified before the Senate Commerce Committee. They offered a lukewarm endorsement of the FCC’s privacy endeavors. “In our initial bipartisan comment to the FCC, we were very supportive of their proposed rule in this area,” FTC Commissioner Terrell McSweeny said at the hearing. “We do believe that like the FTC, the FCC shares our goals of transparency, consumer choice, and security and that they have an important role to play in protecting consumer privacy.” Sparapani said the FCC is only confusing matters. “As communications services continue to evolve, and these kinds of companies begin to merge more and more across traditional silos of industry, none of this is going to make any sense,” he said.

Rosenworcel Nomination Caught Up in End-Game Chess Match

A tangled mess of two stalled telecommunication bills and the pending nomination of a well-liked tech regulator won’t be resolved until a lame-duck session of Congress, if at all, a top Senate Republican said. At issue is the confirmation of Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel of the Federal Communications Commission, a Democrat, for a second term at the agency. If the Senate doesn’t vote before the end of 2016, she’s out. Her term will be up, and there will be no way to extend her tenure, even though she is highly regarded by both Republicans and Democrats.

The standoff over Rosenworcel in the Senate, with several Republican objections to her nomination, has also tied up a bill to strengthen spectrum allocation and a long-overdue measure to reauthorize the FCC. “I don’t think this happens before Nov 8th, but I think when we get back in a lame-duck, I hope that we can bust some things loose and perhaps one of those will be the nomination,” Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD) said after a lengthy oversight hearing on the FCC. Democratic lawmaekrs say that in Dec 2014, then-Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), promised Senate Democrats that if they voted to confirm Republican FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly, the GOP would move swiftly to confirm Rosenworcel at the start of the 114th Congress in January 2015. That’s also when McConnell became majority leader. The Senate Commerce Committee approved her renomination in December, but the floor vote to confirm Rosenworcel has yet to come because of a few GOP objections. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), has blocked two telecom measures reported out of Senate Commerce, both with strong bipartisan support, in retaliation for McConnell’s unwillingness to force the nomination through. Chairman Thune suggested recently that if FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler were to step down following the November elections, it could help free up Rosenworcel’s confirmation vote.

The GOP’s Plan to Keep Control of Internet Naming

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD) said he “expects” language that would halt the transition of an Internet governing body away from US government control to make it into the upcoming continuing resolution (CR) to fund the federal government. “Right now they’re trying to work out what that would look like, what would be effective in terms of putting the brakes on this,” he said. “I don’t think that anybody feels that we’re ready yet for that transition to take place, and so the question is how do you make that happen?”

Chairman Thune said that he expects the planned transition of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority to be one of several issues that could push negotiations with Democratic Sens over the CR into next week. Meanwhile, the squabble over whether the US should follow through on the transition heated up Sept 13 as a report from the Government Accountability Office found that the upcoming transfer of power wouldn’t violate constitutional law.

House Communications Subcommittee Advances Two Telecom Bills

House Communications Subcommittee approved two measures: one aimed at improving call reliability in rural areas and another that would make it illegal for anyone outside the country to fake their caller identification information when texting someone inside the US. The subcommittee advanced both bills by voice vote. The measures now await consideration by the full committee. The rural call reliability legislation (HR 2566), advanced after the panel approved a substitute amendment that brought the bill in line with a similar measure in the Senate (S 827). The House bill would require intermediate providers to register with the Federal Communications Commission, which in turn would create standards aimed at ensuring better phone call quality in rural areas. The substitute amendment was adopted in an effort to give the bill a better chance at becoming law, according to Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR). “In addition to improving the substance of this bill, this amendment will also bring our legislation in line with the language of the bill currently making its way through the Senate,” Chairman Walden said at the markup. “It is a priority that we get this legislation passed into law, and by mirroring the text of the Senate that they’ve adopted coming out of committee, we’ve very much increased our odds that this will happen.” The Senate Commerce Committee in June advanced the version sponsored by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN). That measure awaits action from the full Senate.

The second bill (HR 2669) would make it illegal for individuals or entities abroad to send text messages with fraudulent caller identification information to someone in the US. Currently, it’s illegal only for text messages that originate in the US.

Chairman Thune Hints at One Way to ‘Free Up’ FCC Commissioner Rosenworcel Nomination

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD) suggested that the political tug-of-war over the confirmation of Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel of the Federal Communications Commission could be smoothed over if FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler agrees to step down at the end of President Barack Obama’s term. “I suspect that nominees and unfinished legislation probably get freed up when we get past the election,” Chairman Thune said. “I think that would help, probably in a lot of ways, free up the Rosenworcel nomination,” said Chairman Thune, referring to a scenario in which Chairman Wheeler would promise to voluntarily leave the FCC when President Obama leaves the White House in January.

Chairman Wheeler’s term is set to expire in 2018. “As you know, I’ve asked that question in hearings, and he’s been very evasive in responding to it,” Chairman Thune said. The South Dakota Republican asked Chairman Wheeler at a March hearing if he would step down at the end of President Obama’s term. Leaders of the FCC have traditionally stepped down before their terms end to allow the new president to nominate a new agency head. “It’s a ways off,” Chairman Wheeler said at the March hearing. “I understand precedent. I understand expectations. I also understand that 10 or 11 months is a long time. So it’s probably not the wisest thing in the world to do to make some kind of ironclad commitment.” Chairman Wheeler is set to testify the week of Sept 12 at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing featuring all five FCC commissioners. He’s expected to face tough questions yet again about his post-election plans.

Sen Cruz Schedules Hearing to Examine Internet Governance Transition

Sen Ted Cruz (R-TX) scheduled a hearing for the week of Sept 12 to discuss the US government’s plan to transition its control of the Internet domain’s naming system to a private nonprofit organization. Sen Cruz, who’s helping lead GOP opposition to the scheduled Oct 1 handoff, will chair a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Oversight, Agency Action, Federal Rights and Federal Courts hearing on Sept 14 to “investigate the possible dangers” of ceding control of the governing body, according to a release from his office.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration, an agency housed in the Commerce Department, has held a contract to run the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority for 18 years. NTIA said in August that it will move forward on its plan to hand over control of IANA to a private group of global stakeholders on Oct 1 “barring any significant impediment.” IANA governs the domain names used by Internet service providers to traffic data worldwide. The movement to transition IANA away from Commerce Department control has been two years in the making, with many experts in the Internet community saying it will promote transparency and prevent any one government from having excessive influence over the Internet. However, several GOP lawmakers have been vehemently against the transition. Sen Cruz has previously called the transition plan “an extraordinary threat to our freedom” that “will empower countries like Russia, like China, like Iran to censor speech on the Internet.”

Tech, Telecom Giants to Fight Robocalls as Wheeler Threatens FCC Action

A group of 32 telecommunications companies, phone manufacturers and tech firms will join AT&T in developing standards and procedures to fight robocalls, the automated calls and texts made to individuals to either sell products or commit scams.

AT&T Chairman and Chief Executive Randall Stephenson is heading the so-called Robocall Strike Force, which will include Apple, Google and Verizon. The task force will report back to the Federal Communications Commission by Oct. 19 with “concrete plans to accelerate the development and adoption of new tools and solutions” to combat the prevalence of robocalls, as well as suggestions for what the role of government should be in addressing the issue. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said that while he was happy to see the industry tackle the problem of robocalls, the agency could step in if they don’t see the task force making significant progress. “This is an industry group,” Chairman Wheeler said at the opening of the task force’s first meeting at the FCC. “We believe in multistakeholder solutions. And when the whole ecosystem can come together, it can produce good results. But without results, we will be forced to look for other solutions, because this scourge must stop.”

Groups Say Transitioning Internet-Naming Agency Would Break Law

Twenty-five advocacy groups want the Commerce Department to hold off on plans to cede its control over the body that governs internet domain names. But the United States shows no signs of halting plans to end its leadership of the body by the end of next month. The groups argue that riders on spending bills in Congress prohibit the internet naming transition from moving forward. If the Obama Administration moves forward with its plan to relinquish control, the groups say Congress should sue.

“We agree that internet governance should work from the bottom up, driven by the global community of private sector, civil society, and technical stakeholders,” said a letter, with signatures coming from groups like TechFreedom, Heritage Action for America and Taxpayers Protection Alliance. “Without robust safeguards, internet governance could fall under the sway of governments hostile to freedoms protected by the First Amendment.”

President Obama: US Could Punish Russia for Hacks, With Enough Proof

Russia could face punishment for hacks on Democratic Party organizations if proof emerges that the state is the culprit, President Barack Obama said. But he added that the hacking situation is unlikely to significantly impact the already difficult relations between Russia and the United States. Following speculation over the involvement of Russian intelligence agencies in hacks on the computer servers at the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the campaign for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, President Obama said the US could punish Russian for its role in the cyberattacks. But he said it requires a strong amount of proof to reach that point.

“We have provisions in place where if we see evidence of a malicious attack by a state actor, we can impose potentially certain proportional penalties,” President Obama said at a press conference with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. “But that requires us to really be able to pin down and know what we’re talking about. I don’t want to get ahead of the legal evidence and facts that we may have in order to make those kinds of decisions.” President Obama’s comments come accusations that the Russian government orchestrated a series of hacks on Democratic Party entities, potentially to influence the 2016 presidential election.

Arab Americans Join With Tech, Privacy Groups to Fight Surveillance

Privacy advocates in the technology space have a new ally in Arab American groups to help with their fight to keep US surveillance at bay. They are spurred on by anti-Muslim rhetoric from Republicans. Privacy and civil rights groups are joined by Arab American advocacy groups that call to be more publicly opposed to government surveillance.

In June, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee signed on to two letters to members of Congress, urging lawmakers to fight government surveillance. The letter was co-signed by some of the most notable tech and privacy groups. The first letter, dated June 6, urged members of the Senate Judiciary Committee to reject an amendment that would allow the Federal Bureau of Investigation to obtain personal information — an individual’s name, postal address, e-mail address, phone number, device serial number, login history and length of service with a provider — through a subpoena instead of a warrant. The supporters of that bill eventually pulled the measure from consideration because of a disagreement over the amendment. The ADC signed on to another letter the following week, pressing House leadership to adopt an amendment to a defense spending bill that would prohibit intelligence officials from conducting warrantless searches of data gathered through Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Amendments Act. House lawmakers rejected the amendment.

Tech Is Prominent in GOP Platform, but Trump’s Silence Speaks Volumes

The Republican Party’s policy platform has a lot in it to energize the tech community. It calls for expanding broadband deployment nationwide, providing more spectrum for wireless development, strengthening digital privacy, and modernizing aging government information technology. But the Republicans’ calls for harsher immigration policies, combined with a lack of engagement from Donald Trump, are overshadowing what appeared to be an extension of a GOP olive branch to the United States tech sector.

“I do think the tech industry would say the platform is nice, but the proof is in the pudding of what the candidate wants to do. That’s who’s running the country, not the party, per se,” said Rob Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. “What we’ve seen really in the last six months is that Trump and the party are not the same.” That discord was echoed by Ed Black, president and chief executive of the Computer and Communications Industry Association, which represents companies such as Amazon and Google. “For good or ill, the reality seems to be that there is little reason to believe that the Republican presidential candidate and the platform of the Republican party are mutually trustworthy as guides to what might actually unfold in a Republican controlled federal government,” Black said. “The contradictions expressed during the course of the campaign leave folks unsure as to what might really evolve as policy priorities and initiatives.”