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Rep Gene Green (D-TX) called on the federal government to carefully examine a yet-to-be-proposed merger between Sprint and T-Mobile. “Congress must take a careful and critical look at this deal if and when it is announced and stand up for what’s best for American consumers and American jobs,” Green said, speaking on the floor of the House.

Though the companies have not officially announced their plans to merge, officials from SoftBank -- which purchased Sprint in early 2013 -- have begun publicly touting the benefits the company could bring to the American wireless market if it had a bigger presence. Advocates for the merger say the two companies could better take on industry giants AT&T and Verizon if they combine.

The House Intelligence Committee approved legislation to make a number of reforms to the National Security Agency, sending the bill to the House floor. The Intelligence Committee’s approval of the USA Freedom Act by voice vote came just a day after the same bill sailed through the Judiciary Committee on a 32-0 vote and adds to the momentum for reining in the NSA nearly a year after leaks from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden shocked the world with details of the agency’s operations.

“Enhancing privacy and civil liberties while protecting the operational capability of a critical counterterrorism tool, not pride of authorship, has always been our first and last priority,” Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-MI) and ranking member Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD) said in a joint statement after the closed-door vote. “We are pleased the House Judiciary Committee reached a compromise that garnered strong, bipartisan support. We look forward to working with the Judiciary Committee, House and Senate leadership, and the White House to address outstanding operational concerns and enact the USA Freedom Act into law this year.”

Broadcast industry giant Sinclair Broadcasting Group is forming a PAC, according to paperwork recently filed with Federal Election Commission.

Sinclair Senior Vice President of Policy and Strategy Rebecca Hanson, the company will use the PAC as it works on issues in front of Congress and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

“There are a lot of challenges facing our industry, and we believe that engaging in the process through the PAC is one of a variety of ways to further our goals,” Hanson said. On its website, Sinclair boasts being "one of the largest and most diversified television broadcasting companies in the country today," including FOX, ABC, NBC and CBS affiliates.

The network neutrality overhaul proposed by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler was thrown in doubt as the agency's two Democratic members expressed serious concerns with the proposal.

With the commission’s two Republican members expected to vote against the plan, Chairman Wheeler needs the votes of commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Mignon Cylburn to get it enacted.

Speaking at a public event, Commissioner Rosenworcel threw cold water on Chairman Wheeler's plans to rewrite the net neutrality rules to allow Internet “fast lanes” and called on him to delay consideration of his proposal, which is now scheduled for May 15.

In a blog post, Commissioner Clyburn pledged to take the negative feedback into account heading into the upcoming vote. "Over 100,000 Americans have spoken. ... I am listening to your voices as I approach this critical vote to preserve an ever-free and open Internet," she wrote. She also pointed to her pervious calls to have the agency prohibit "pay for priority arrangements all together."

The Securities and Exchange Commission warned investors to be wary of the virtual currency bitcoin.

The financial regulator cautioned that bitcoin has historically been volatile, subject to hackers, and a potential target for fraudulent schemes. While the regulator did not say people should steer clear of investing in bitcoin or other virtual currencies, it did note that there are several unique challenges to consider.

For example, since bitcoin transactions are not backed by any government or routed through traditional financial institutions, it could be difficult to trace money should something go awry, the SEC said. The SEC also said that since some early bitcoin investors have enjoyed a windfall as the virtual currency gained value compared to dollars, they could be ripe targets for people peddling fraudulent or high-risk schemes. Promoters could also lean on the personal interest many bitcoin investors have in the success of the currency to get them to invest poorly.

Abortion rights advocates are asking Yahoo to take down “crisis pregnancy center” ads that they say discourage women from having abortions.

The petition from NARAL Pro-Choice America and the women’s rights group UltraViolet comes fresh off of a victory with Google, which NARAL said took down similarly “deceptive” ads in April.

“We hope that Yahoo CEO Marissa Meyer will follow Google's example and remove deceptive crisis pregnancy center ads so that women can continue to trust Yahoo to provide the accurate resources we are seeking when we use their platform,” NARAL President Ilyse Hogue said. “No search engine should allow themselves to be complicit in such a manipulative campaign to lure women into ideologically driven facilities by masquerading as actual abortion service providers.”

Abortion rights advocates say that the pregnancy center ads violate search engines’ advertising policies by targeting people searching for abortions while, in fact, discouraging those services. “These ads use the search term ‘abortion clinic’ when they don't provide those services,” NARAL said in the online petition.

Leaders of top technology companies applauded the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for announcing new regulations that would allow the husbands and wives of foreign workers to get jobs in the United States.

The draft regulations would help the families of people who are working in the country on high-skilled visas, tech leaders said, and keep top talent in the US.

“By sensibly improving these rules, we can help ensure that the most talented foreign innovators conduct their break-through research right here at home,” said Bruce Mehlman, head of the Technology CEO Council, which represents leaders of Intel, IBM and other tech companies.

Currently, foreign scientists, engineers or computer programmers can come and work in the US on an H-1B visa. Their husbands and wives, however, are stuck with an H-4 visa, which allows them to stay in the US but prevents them from working.

“These factors cause America to lose valuable talent when a green card candidate -- many of whom were educated at American universities -- to abandon their quest for citizenship and seek employment in countries that compete with the United States,” said Linda Moore, president of the TechNet trade group, which counts Apple, Microsoft and AT&T among its members.

Privacy groups are considering asking the federal government to intervene in Facebook’s recent purchase of fitness app Moves.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Center for Digital Democracy both said that they are considering asking the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate Facebook’s acquisition of Moves.

The new policy says the company “may share information, including personally identifying information, with our Affiliates (companies that are part of our corporate groups of companies, including but not limited to Facebook) to help provide, understand, and improve our Services.”

A Facebook spokeswoman said that Moves user data will not be integrated into Facebook's profiles of users. Instead, the company will use the data to to support the app, the spokeswoman said.

Privacy advocates expressed concerns about the updated policy. “The fact that they’ve changed their privacy policy so quickly is disappointing” and “deserves some investigation,” Julia Horwitz, consumer protection counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said.

Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, said he is “exploring FTC regulatory action.”

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is pushing banks and other financial institutions to post privacy disclosures online, so information about their data-sharing activities is more accessible to consumers.

The CFPB announced it is considering a new rule that is intended to limit banks' data-sharing activities and improve transparency, and claimed it would save the industry millions of dollars each year.

“Consumers need clear information about how their personal information is being used by financial institutions,” CFPB Director Richard Cordray said in a statement. “This proposal would make it easier for consumers to find and access privacy policies, while also making it cheaper for industry to provide disclosures.”

Currently, banks are required to mail privacy disclosures to their customers once a year. But the new rules would instead allow these disclosures to be posted online, under certain conditions. The privacy disclosures explain whether a bank is sharing customers' personal information, what information is being shared, and whom it is being shared with.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) said he is tired of selling off public airwaves only to fund a pork-barrel project or make a tiny dent in the deficit.

Selling off chunks of the spectrum to make a little short-term cash, he said, would be like selling off pieces of the Mississippi River or the Saint Lawrence Seaway.

“Public assets for the public good have never been before sold in the way that we deal with spectrum,” he said at a conference pushing for more unlicensed spectrum, which allows Wi-Fi systems and devices like garage door openers to operate.

In 2015, the Federal Communications Commission is planning to buy back chunks of the airwaves currently owned by broadcasters and resell them to wireless companies, which need the spectrum to offer high-speed Web access for consumers’ phones and tablets. Most of the airwaves will be allocated for specific companies, but the FCC will reserve some for unlicensed use to support Wi-Fi and other services. Just how much of the spectrum is unlicensed depends on how much broadcasters sell back to the government.