Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Ariz., introduced the Electronic Communications Privacy Act Amendments Act (ECPA) (HR-283), a Salmon news release said Thursday. The bill, which both Salmon and Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., introduced in the 113th Congress, would require a warrant for a government entity to obtain personal electronic data, it said. (See Leahy’s bill, S-607, here.) “The message is simple: Get a warrant,” Salmon said in the release: “The same procedures law enforcement uses to investigate dangerous criminals and prevent acts of terrorism should apply to people’s digital lives -- as should the same protections.”

The National Retail Federation is starting United for Patent Reform, which will seek via legislation to reduce abusive patent litigation, NRF said in a news release Thursday. NRF and Oracle are the coalition’s co-chairs, and its members include Adobe, Google and retail and housing associations, it said. “Patent trolls have abused our patent system with their coercive bribery schemes for far too long,” said David French, NRF senior vice president-government relations. “Main Street businesses and our allies in Silicon Valley have had enough and are fighting back in an all-out effort against patent trolls.” Public Knowledge cheered the coalition’s launch, in a news release. “The diversity of members of United for Patent Reform proves what we already knew: that patent reform is important for everyone who uses technology, from Silicon Valley companies to Main Street businesses to individual consumers,” Charles Duan, PK Patent Reform Project director, said. The coalition also sent a letter to the Senate and House Judiciary committees’ leadership, seeking seven legislative patent reforms. Those included stopping “discovery abuses” and forcing those who allege patent infringements to “explain their claims." House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte’s, R-Va., Innovation Act (HR-3309) could have done “even more to prevent abusive patent litigation,” but the bill was an “excellent start to the legislative reform effort,” it said. Goodlatte said in a speech Wednesday that he plans to work with the Senate in the 114th Congress to pass HR-3309 quickly (see 1501140031). The bill overwhelmingly passed the House last year. Other members of the coalition are Amazon, Cisco, Dell, Facebook, the Food Marketing Institute, Intuit, JCPenney, Macy's, the National Association of Chain Restaurants, the National Association of Convenience Stores, Salesforce.com, SAS and Verizon, the group said. There are "several others who are still in the process of joining at this date of announcement," it said. At CEA, which has made patent reform one of its highest legislative priorities (see 1411050022), Michael Petricone, senior vice president-government affairs, said in an emailed statement Thursday that "the breadth of the coalition shows that bogus patent lawsuits are not just a tech issue." As CEA sees it, "patent trolls extort and bedevil industries ranging from retailers to restaurants, from hotels to health care," Petricone said. "Patent abuse is a daily, costly challenge for a large swath of the U.S. economy, and that is why we fully expect sensible, common sense patent reform to be signed into law in 2015.”

The Senate Judiciary Committee scheduled its second confirmation hearing for two White House IP appointees for Jan. 21, the committee’s website said. President Barack Obama nominated Michelle Lee as Patent and Trademark Office director and Daniel Marti as U.S. intellectual property enforcement coordinator. Lee is PTO’s deputy director; Marti is managing partner at Kilpatrick Townsend. Committee member Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., focused in the first confirmation hearing last month on the ease with which a consumer can find copyright infringing material through a Google search (see 1412100031). The Jan. 21 hearing will be at 2:30 p.m. in Dirksen 226.

Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wis., introduced HR-355 Wednesday to prohibit NTIA’s proposed transition of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority. The bill’s text wasn’t available, but Duffy introduced a similar measure last year, the Global Internet Freedom Act (HR-4398) (see 1404080078). That bill was passed as an amendment to the Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Appropriations Act FY 2015 (HR-4660) (see 1406020071). Internet governance observers told us in June that the more moderate Domain Openness Through Continued Oversight Matters (DOTCOM) Act (HR-4342), which would require a GAO study of the proposed transition for up to one year, could have been used to gather support in the Senate in opposition to Duffy’s bill. House Commerce Committee member John Shimkus, R-Ill., who introduced DOTCOM last year, has told us he plans to reintroduce the bill in the 114th Congress (see 1501080054 and 1412100054). NTIA and ICANN didn't comment.

President Barack Obama is “imposing federal intrusion where none is necessary” by telling the FCC to pre-empt state laws restricting municipal broadband (see 1501140048), Rep. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., said in a statement Thursday. Cramer is one of the new members of the Communications Subcommittee. The White House recommendation “in all likelihood would only serve as a barrier to economic opportunity and job creation,” he said. “Entrepreneurs working with telecommunications cooperatives and private providers are leading the charge and ought to be encouraged by a nonintrusive federal government.” The issue is partisan, with other Republicans also slamming the announcement and Democrats praising it.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, spoke in favor of the bulk surveillance programs the government uses to disrupt violent plotting, citing a recent incident at the Capitol. “We would have never known about this had it not been for the FISA [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] program and our ability to collect information on people who pose an imminent threat,” Boehner said Thursday at a news conference in Pennsylvania during a GOP retreat.

Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Bill Nelson, D-Fla., introduced S-177 Tuesday, which, in its draft form, was called the Data Security and Breach Notification Act, a Nelson news release said (see 1501130029). The bill’s text was unavailable. Nelson said the bill would require a 30-day consumer notification period for companies hit by a data breach. S-177 didn’t have co-sponsors.

The Immigration Innovation Act of 2015 “is really a plan to help supercharge American innovation and our economy, and we urge the Senate to pass this bill,” Andy Halataei, Information Technology Industry Council senior vice president, said in a statement. “Like it or not, the U.S. is on the wrong side of a brain drain in the heated race for highly-skilled minds to be competitive against other countries in the global economy,” he said. “If passed, this bill would help us to attract the best and brightest minds who want to bring their talents to our companies by using a market driven approach to match what our economy needs in terms of high skilled employees.” CEA used similar language in hailing the bill’s introduction (see 1501130044).

Rep. Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., will reintroduce the Smartphone Theft Prevention Act (HR-4065) in this Congress, his spokeswoman told us. The bill would require smartphone manufacturers to include a kill switch on the device, and has become a source of debate at the state and federal levels over the past year. Serrano is still deciding when to reintroduce the legislation, the spokeswoman said. Serrano’s bill in the 113th Congress had 17 co-sponsors, all Democrats. It was referred to the Communications Subcommittee in February, but it never advanced.

The Senate Commerce Committee plans an organizational meeting Tuesday at 2:30 p.m. in 253 Russell, it said in a news release. It will consider committee rules, subcommittee memberships and, if the Senate Rules Committee has made it available, a budget resolution for the 114th Congress.