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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

A bipartisan, bicameral group of lawmakers has struck a compromise on legislation for revising and reauthorizing Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Section 702 (see 2306130053). Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, will announce the legislation with Reps. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif.; Warren Davidson, R-Ohio; and Andy Biggs, R-Ky., during a news conference at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, they said Monday. The bill will help hold government abusers accountable and strengthen constitutional protections for Americans, they said.

Department of Homeland Security employees flagged “misinformation” for a group of nonprofit researchers with the goal of having 2020 election content removed from social media platforms, House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn., claimed in a series of documents released Monday. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Administration employees searched for 2020 election-related content for the Election Integrity Partnership, a group of four nongovernmental organizations focused on misinformation and disinformation, Green said in an announcement with House Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Dan Bishop, R-N.C. Green and Bishop cited emails showing CISA employees expressed desire to take down certain election-related content, which raises First Amendment issues. This included alleged misinformation about COVID-19, they said. DHS didn’t comment.

House Communications Subcommittee member Rep. Tony Cardenas of California is leading a letter with almost two dozen other chamber Democrats urging the FCC not to refresh the record in docket 14-261 on reclassifying linear streaming services as MVPDs. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has maintained the agency doesn’t have the authority to reclassify streaming services, and the FCC said her thinking hadn’t changed after a June letter from Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., (see 2306230062). Twenty other Senate Democratic caucus members pushed last month in favor of a proceeding refresh (see 2310180067). “It was clear even in the 2014 FCC proceeding on this issue that video streaming and the video streaming marketplace were different, and therefore the FCC decided not to proceed,” Cardenas and the other Democratic lawmakers said in a draft of the letter to Rosenworcel we obtained Monday. “Aside from being an inappropriate standard to apply to the streaming marketplace, there is also reason to believe that these issues may be outside of FCC’s scope. The 2014 FCC proceeding record shows that there were issues with the FCC asserting jurisdiction. Ultimately, it is the role of Congress to determine changes to the streaming marketplace, and for these reasons, we urge you to close the 2014 proceeding.” Other House Democrats signing on to the letter include Innovation Subcommittee ranking member Jan Schakowsky of Illinois and Communications member Yvette Clarke of New York.

Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., and two other Democratic senators praised NTIA Friday for issuing a conditional waiver of the broadband, equity, access and deployment program's letter of credit requirement (see 2311010040). Lujan and the other two senators, Martin Heinrich of New Mexico and Peter Welch of Vermont, previously wrote Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson urging them to consider alternatives to the LOC requirement for BEAD participation. “I'm glad that” Davidson “heeded our call to allow Tribal entities, municipalities, credit unions, and smaller broadband providers to fully participate in connecting families in New Mexico and across the country,” Lujan said: “This waiver authority relies on tested tools to ensure broadband providers are able to complete the work while also providing flexibility to better connect New Mexicans.”

A new Meta whistleblower will testify about the teen “mental health crisis” on Tuesday before the Senate Privacy Subcommittee, the Senate Judiciary Committee announced Friday. Former Instagram consultant Arturo Bejar has shared “new, irrefutable evidence that senior Facebook executives knowingly turned a blind eye to horrific harms to young people on the company’s platforms,” subcommittee Chairman Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said in a statement with Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. Citing a new Wall Street Journal report, they said Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Instagram head Adam Mosseri and Meta executives “were personally warned that millions of teens face bullying, eating disorder material, illicit drugs, and sexual exploitation, often within minutes of opening the app.” The company hid this information from Congress, ignored recommendations on how to protect users and rolled back safety tools, the senators said: “Arturo’s first-hand knowledge and damning evidence prove that Meta has put profits ahead of the safety and wellbeing of millions of teenagers, with a deadly toll on young people and families.” The company didn’t comment. Senators vowed to move legislation after the 2021 testimony of Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen (see 2110050062).