November 2019

Congress agrees data privacy is a problem. So where’s the bill?

Congress has been promising federal privacy legislation for a year now and producing little more than a hodgepodge of conflicting piecemeal proposals. Now, at long last, one party’s leadership has stepped up to put the muscle of its caucus behind...a loose set of principles. Senate Democrats under Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) unveiled what is basically a wish list for a bill-to-be, supported by the ranking members of the four relevant committees.

CBO Scores the DOTGOV Online Trust in Government Act

The DOTGOV Online Trust in Government Act (S 2749) would codify the process through which federal and nonfederal entities request internet domain names specifically for governmental users (i.e. domain names ending in .gov). The bill would transfer the responsibility for overseeing the current process from the General Services Administration (GSA) to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). The bill also would permit state and local entities to apply for homeland security grants to help fund the costs of transitioning to those governmental domain names.