February 2017

House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) says she is readying a push to revoke the Federal Communications Commission's broadband privacy rules. Chairman Blackburn said she believes lawmakers can use the Congressional Review Act to rescind the new privacy rules. Those rules, passed by a 3-2 vote last October, require broadband carriers to obtain consumers' opt-in consent before drawing on their data for ad targeting. "I think using the CRA is fine," Chairman Blackburn said. "We are working with the Senate to make sure we can do that." She added that she could move forward with the initiative as early as the week of Feb 13.

Her comments come several weeks after more than a dozen conservative and libertarian groups asked lawmakers to revoke the rules under the Congressional Review Act -- a rarely used 1996 law that allows federal lawmakers to overturn recent agency decisions. Chairman Blackburn also downplayed concerns that revoking the FCC's rules would leave broadband providers without any oversight when it comes to privacy, due to their status as common carriers. The Federal Trade Commission, which typically enforces privacy standards, isn't authorized to prosecute common carriers. "I would think there would be a way to work through that so that you don't have a gap in oversight," Chairman Blackburn said. She didn't elaborate further.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) says he won’t open an investigation into President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn, citing executive privilege. But the committee will investigate who leaked the story that led to Flynn’s resignation and why Trump's national security adviser was being recorded.

Democrats are demanding an investigation into the matter, which ties into their suspicions about the Trump administration’s alleged close ties to Moscow. But House Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) said his committee will not investigate Flynn, and Nunes, the Intelligence chairman, followed suit. Chairman Nunes said he is more concerned “that you have an American citizen who had his phone calls recorded.” Chairman Nunes will investigate how the story was exposed, he said.

Trump Administration staffers are reportedly communicating by using an encrypted messaging app that erases messages shortly after they have been received. The Washington Post reported that officials were using the app, called Confide, to avoid being caught talking to the media, as President Trump moves to crack down on leaks. The Post report followed a report from Axios recently that reported Confide had become a favorite app for Republican staffers. Staffers may also be concerned about being hacked after high-profile cyber attacks on Democratic groups during the election.

"We do see a spike in across the board metrics when there is a major news cycle about the vulnerability of digital communications," Jon Brod, Confide’s president, told Axios. The reports raise questions though about the possible violation of federal records keeping laws that require certain government employees to use their official email address for communications. “The whole f---ing campaign was about Hillary's emails and now Trump's team is violating the Presidential Records Act by using Confide,” tweeted former Obama staffer Tommy Vietor.

The director of the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) says White House counselor Kellyanne Conway misused her official position by hawking Ivanka Trump’s product line on TV and is recommending that the White House discipline her for it. “Under the present circumstances, there is strong reason to believe that Ms. Conway has violated the Standards of Conduct Act and that disciplinary action is warranted,” OGE director Walter Schaub wrote in a Feb 14 letter to White House legal counselor Stefan Passantino. Schaub asked the White House to respond by Feb. 28 with the results of its investigation and any disciplinary action it may decide to take.