Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., praised the FCC Thursday for approving an order implementing the Safe Connections Act during its Wednesday meeting (see 2311150042). The order provides a pathway for domestic violence survivors to separate their phone lines from family plans and to call or text hotlines without the numbers being included in logs. It also establishes temporary eligibility for survivors to receive Lifeline support. “Survivors of domestic violence should never have to live in fear of their abusers,” said Fischer, who joined Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, in sponsoring the bill (see 2212070055). “The FCC’s implementation of our legislation will ensure that these survivors have the tools to safeguard their communications and connect with critical services securely.”

Meta needs to turn over documents and communication related to whistleblower claims that CEO Mark Zuckerberg and executives deliberately ignored recommendations to address social media’s impact on youth mental health, a bipartisan group of Senate Judiciary Committee members wrote the company Tuesday, as expected (see 2311130052). Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin, D-Ill., wrote the letter with Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.; Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.; Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.; and Josh Hawley, R-Mo. They cited an unsealed complaint in a lawsuit Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell (D) filed against Meta. The complaint shows Zuckerberg “personally vetoed” a new safety feature and supported the company’s underinvestment in platform safety staff, the senators said: “It now seems clear that the root of Meta’s repeated failure to act to enhance the safety of its products starts at the top.”

Congress inched closer Tuesday night and Wednesday to enacting a continuing resolution to fund the FCC, FTC, NTIA and other Commerce Department agencies at FY 2023 levels through Feb. 2 (HR-6363), which would avert a government shutdown threatened for Friday night. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., filed cloture Wednesday on the motion to proceed to HR-6363, potentially setting up votes on the measure before a shutdown would begin. The House voted 336-95 to approve HR-6363, clearing the two-thirds majority needed to pass it under suspension of the rules (see 2311140073).

Bipartisan legislation introduced Wednesday would direct the National Institute of Standards and Technology to develop standards for companies to identify and disclose AI-generated content. Introduced by Sens. John Thune, R-S.D.; Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.; Roger Wicker, R-Miss.; John Hickenlooper, D-Colo.; Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va.; and Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., the AI Research, Innovation and Accountability Act would direct NIST to develop standards for “providing both authenticity and provenance information for online content, similar to the efforts of the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity,” they said. The bill increases transparency for consumers and limits government intervention, said Thune.

DOJ Antitrust Division Chief Jonathan Kanter will testify before the House Antitrust Subcommittee on Tuesday, the House Judiciary Committee announced. The oversight hearing will begin at 10 a.m. in 2141 Rayburn.

Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz of Texas, Communications Subcommittee ranking member John Thune of South Dakota and 26 other Republican senators urged FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel to “reconsider” the draft rules on digital discrimination that will be considered during the commissioners' Nov. 15 open meeting (see 2310250070). Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., cited concerns about the digital discrimination draft last week in his push for the House to pass an amendment to its FY 2024 appropriations bill covering FCC funding (HR-4664) that would defund the FCC's Communications Equity and Diversity Council (see 2311090073). The FCC's draft “largely follows a Biden administration diktat” via NTIA to adopt a broad definition of digital discrimination to include disparate treatment and disparate impact (see 2310060067), Cruz and the other GOP senators said in a letter to Rosenworcel. It “will create crippling uncertainty for the U.S. broadband industry, chill broadband investment, and undermine Congress’s objective of promoting broadband access for all Americans. We urge you to adhere to the will of Congress” as expressed in the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act provision mandating the proceeding “to avoid causing serious damage to the competitive and innovative U.S. broadband industry.” The draft, “buttressed by the theory that the lack of actual discrimination somehow authorizes the FCC to redefine digital discrimination to expand its authority,” turns IIJA's statutory language “on its head” and constitutes “a major abuse of the agency’s power,” the lawmakers said: “Absent effects-based language, agencies cannot expand the scope of a statute to impose disparate impact liability. This is for good reason: disparate impact liability must be limited so as not to punish ‘the practical business choices and profit-related decisions that sustain a vibrant and dynamic free enterprise system.’ The FCC has no authority to ignore the plain meaning of the IIJA.” The FCC didn’t comment.

Congress shouldn’t reauthorize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Section 702 in its continuing resolution, 27 consumer advocate groups wrote Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on Monday. Among the signees were: Access Now, American Civil Liberties Union, Americans for Prosperity, Center for Democracy & Technology, Demand Progress, Electronic Privacy Information Center, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Fight for the Future, Free Press Action and New America's Open Technology Institute. They cited media reports that Schumer is considering including reauthorization in the Senate’s CR, days after a bipartisan, bicameral bill was introduced to reform Section 702 (see 2311060068). “Allowing a short-term reauthorization to be slipped into a must-pass bill would demonstrate a blatant disregard for the civil liberties and civil rights of the American people,” the groups wrote. Schumer’s office didn’t comment.

Reps. Norma Torres, D-Calif., and Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., refiled Wednesday their 911 Supporting Accurate Views of Emergency Services Act, which would reclassify public safety call-takers and dispatchers as protective service. Torres has successfully added the measure to the House’s versions of several previous National Defense Authorization Act iterations but wasn't able to get it into the annual package this year (see 2307100063). The measure “provides a simple fix to reclassify 9-1-1 professionals as first responders and honor these brave men and women for their work,” Torres said. “As a former 9-1-1 dispatcher for over 17 years, I know this small change would mean a great deal to dispatchers.” NENA CEO Brian Fontes hailed Torres and Fitzpatrick for refiling the bill, saying in a statement that job reclassification is “of great importance to 9-1-1 professionals nationwide.” Torres’ office cited support from FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, APCO and nine other groups.

Bipartisan, bicameral legislation introduced Tuesday seeks to ban warrantless searches of American’s location and web browsing data under Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Section 702 (see 2311060068). Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, along with Reps. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., and Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, introduced legislation that would reauthorize FISA Section 702 with several key changes meant to curb intelligence community surveillance abuse. The bill has support from a wide range of Senate and House sponsors, including Sens. Steve Daines, R-Mont., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Reps. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash.; Thomas Massie, R-Ky.; and Ted Lieu, D-Calif. The bill includes a warrant requirement for collecting American communication data and bans the government from buying U.S. citizens’ information from data brokers. The bill includes provisions meant to block the intelligence community from using foreign targets as a “pretext for spying on Americans with whom they are communicating.” The bill “creates much stronger protections for the privacy of law-abiding Americans, and restores the warrant protections that are at the heart of the Fourth Amendment,” said Wyden. Lee criticized the Biden administration for reportedly opposing the warrant requirement. Biden “wants to veto our bipartisan government surveillance reform bill, because apparently illegal spying on American citizens is very important to his administration. And he hasn’t even read the bill yet!” Lee posted to X on Tuesday. Key sponsors missing from the legislation are House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and ranking member Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y. Nadler told us Tuesday he needs to work with Jordan and “see what he wants to do. We may have a meeting of minds on this,” but generally what Wyden’s group “is proposing I like.” The legislation is supported by dozens of groups, including American Civil Liberties Union, Americans for Prosperity, Center for Democracy & Technology, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Electronic Privacy Information Center, Fight for the Future and Free Press Action.

Democrats on Monday thanked the Biden administration for excluding language in Indo-Pacific Economic Framework negotiations that could jeopardize congressional legislative efforts on AI, privacy, civil rights and competition. Led by Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., the coalition applauded President Joe Biden for his efforts to ensure any “digital trade” provisions included in the IPEF are consistent with goals for countering Big Tech abuse. This includes the suspension of digital trade terms related to personal data and terms that could undermine “most tech anti-monopoly policies.” They accused Big Tech interests and lobbyists of trying to “hijack IPEF negotiations to impose binding rules branded as ‘digital trade’ that may derail” government action.