Legislation to let companies publicly estimate the number of surveillance orders they receive from agencies under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and national security letters was introduced by Reps. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., and Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah. Known as the Surveillance Order Reporting Act, the legislation introduced Tuesday may “shed light on the breadth of overreaching government surveillance programs,” Lofgren and Chaffetz said in a joint news release. Companies' inability to disclose basic information about the requests they receive “impedes informed public debate, undermines user trust in Internet services, and has led to strained relationships between U.S. companies and international business partners,” the release said. Internet and telecom companies would be able to report an estimated number of surveillance orders received, orders complied with and, rounded to the nearest 100, the number of users and accounts information requested or provided on.

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said he’s “encouraged” that the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) are “developing a plan to regularly test emergency communications systems with local governments, but what I want to see from [WMATA] is a real sense of urgency when it comes to fixing problems with emergency communications.” Warner urged COG and WMATA last week to improve their coordination on public safety communications connectivity within WMATA’s Metrorail system in response to problems that first responders encountered with their radios while attempting a rescue Jan. 12 at the L’Enfant Plaza Metrorail station (see 1501230066). COG and WMATA told Warner in a letter Friday that they're “working systematically to address any issues” found during testing of radio connectivity in the Metrorail system. The two entities said they’re also “working together to identify any other areas where improvements can be made in emergency communication and incorporate them into a set of planned formal agreement between public safety agencies and the transit agency.” COG, WMATA and area fire departments currently operate under a 2011 emergency procedures policy agreement. WMATA “must also establish that radio systems are working effectively across the region right now. If problems are detected, we should expect that that they will be addressed in a matter of hours, and not days or weeks,” Warner said Tuesday in a news release.

The House Communications Subcommittee will mark up the FCC Consolidated Reporting Act discussion draft at 10 a.m. Wednesday in 2123 Rayburn. “This bill is another important step in our efforts to cut red tape and modernize the FCC as we bring our laws firmly into the 21st century,” Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., said in a statement. “A more efficient FCC will encourage further innovation, investment, and job creation, things that we can all get behind.” The 11-page discussion draft includes a section emphasizing that the bill will have no effect on FCC authority. Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., introduced a companion bill (S-253) last week, which still has no co-sponsors and has a 16-page bill text. The House passed the legislation in the last Congress but it never advanced in the Senate. “By eliminating outdated studies and consolidating the ones that remain into a biennial release, the Commission will be more efficient and can provide more useful information,” a GOP House majority staff memo said of the discussion draft. “The draft also proposes a “State of the Industry” report, focused on the challenges and opportunities in the marketplace, as well as the chairperson’s plan of action.” Spokespeople for House Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and Communications Subcommittee ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., didn’t comment.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler shot down congressional Republicans’ request that he release the net neutrality order Thursday, the day he plans to circulate it. “What you have suggested in terms of releasing the preliminary discussion draft of the Order runs contrary to Commission procedure followed over the years by both Democratic and Republican Chairs,” Wheeler said in a Monday letter to Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., and House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore. “If decades of precedent are to be changed, then there must be an opportunity for thoughtful review in the lead up to any change.” He rebuffed their accusations that the agency has not been transparent, pointing to roundtables, comments and ex parte filings recounting meetings. “The Commission's Open Internet proceeding has been one of the most transparent and inclusive proceedings in recent memory,” Wheeler said. “We have received more than four million comments -- a record for any Commission proceeding -- on the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking released last spring.”

The Senate Commerce Consumer Protection Subcommittee plans a hearing on data breach notification legislation Thursday at 10 a.m. in 253 Russell, a Commerce committee news release said Friday. “In light of recent data breaches, consumers and companies have called for policy changes in this area,” Chairman Jerry Moran, R-Kan., said. “This hearing will help the Committee gain a better understanding of how to develop a clear and consistent national data breach notification standard that will help both companies and consumers when they face data security challenges.” Witnesses weren't announced.

All 12 Senate Commerce Committee Republicans will be on the Communications Subcommittee, said Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., who also will sit on the subcommittee ex officio as its 13th GOP member. Seven of the Commerce Republicans will sit on the Consumer Protection and Data Security Subcommittee, not counting Thune: Sens. Roy Blunt of Missouri, Ted Cruz of Texas, Steve Daines of Montana, Deb Fischer of Nebraska, Cory Gardner of Colorado, Dean Heller of Nevada and Jerry Moran of Kansas, its chairman. Democrats haven't released rosters for subcommittee memberships.

Legislation that would modernize the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act by requiring government agencies to show probable cause and obtain a search warrant before obtaining or intercepting electronic communications or geolocation data was introduced Monday. Co-sponsors were Reps. Ted Poe, R-Texas, Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., and Suzan DelBene, D-Wash. Known as the Online Communications and Geolocation Protection Act, the legislation would create clear standards for law enforcement on when and how they can legally access location information and ensure that constitutionally guaranteed rights such as those under the Fourth Amendment are protected for wire and electronic communications as well as geolocation data. Currently, law enforcement can obtain electronic communications and geolocation information if it’s more than 180 days old by “merely” obtaining a subpoena, the lawmakers said in a joint news release. The 1986 law has “failed to keep pace with rapidly evolving technology,” they said, “leading to weak and convoluted privacy protections from government access to user data. As consumers and businesses increasingly use cloud computing and location-based services, the law’s standards no longer reflect the way these services are used today, nor adequately protect Americans’ right to privacy.” When "current law affords more protections for a letter in a filing cabinet than an email on a server, it’s clear our policies are outdated,” DelBene said. “This bill will update privacy protections for consumers while resolving competing interests between innovation, international competitiveness and public safety.” Technology "may change, but the Constitution does not,” Poe said. “Whether an individual’s property is physical or digital, it must be protected from snooping government eyes, as required under the Fourth Amendment.”

Congressional Republicans told President Barack Obama they want to work with him on their net neutrality legislation. “There is an opportunity to work together to provide legislative certainty to the net neutrality goals you articulated" Nov. 10, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., and House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., said in a Monday letter to Obama. “We have put forward legislation that seeks to codify the principles you highlighted in your statement, including prohibiting blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization. This legislation places these principles into law, without the uncertainty of litigation that [FCC] action would entail.” They pointed to Obama’s State of the Union pledge to work with Republicans. The White House previously told Thune it backs the FCC moving forward with its own net neutrality order (see 1501200056).

House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., is expected to introduce patent reform legislation “very soon,” a House Judiciary aide said Friday. The legislation is a “top priority” for Goodlatte, who has been meeting with “all interested parties and stakeholders,” she said. House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman Tom Marino, R-Pa., is expected to be a co-sponsor of the bill, a spokesman said. The bill is expected to be “virtually the same” as the Innovation Act (HR-3309), which the House passed in December 2013, he said.

The Senate Commerce Committee will examine the private sector’s experience using the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Cybersecurity Framework, during a hearing Wednesday. The hearing also will focus on potential next steps for the government and private sector on cybersecurity, Senate Commerce said Thursday. “Real progress can be made by continuing to enhance public-private cooperation and improving cyber-threat information sharing,” Commerce Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., said in a news release. The hearing is to begin at 10 a.m. in Russell 253. The committee hadn’t announced the witnesses for the hearing by our deadline. Thune and then-committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., sponsored the 2013 Cybersecurity Act, which eventually passed in mid-December as the Cybersecurity Enhancement Act (see 1412120066). That bill codified NIST’s authority to develop the Cybersecurity Framework, which the agency released in February. NIST will lead a technical workshop on the framework with Stanford University Feb. 12, the day before a planned White House-sponsored summit on cybersecurity issues. President Barack Obama is expected to speak at that event.